


Corrupted

by ninibears_erigom



Series: Corrupted [1]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Alternate Universe - Monster (EXO Music Video), Bad Boy Kim Jongin | Kai, Dark, EXO Smut, F/M, Jealous Kim Jongin | Kai, Kim Jongin | Kai-centric, asylum AU, jongin smut, kai smut, powers au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 11:01:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17058557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninibears_erigom/pseuds/ninibears_erigom
Summary: In different life, Jongin would have lived a good life - a happy life but this isn’t the life he lives now. His mind has been corrupted, his body working against him and his life means nothing to those experimenting on him - except for her. The one shred of hope he clings to and the one person he can’t seem to push away.





	1. Character Profiles

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains themes that may be sensitive to certain audiences, please read at own risk.

**Name:**  Doh Kyungsoo;  _terra clan_  
 **Age:**  29  
 **Ability:**  Super Strength; can absorb the energy from the Earth to use as a defence or as an offensive.  
 **Background:**  His ancestors were part of the group who created the original dampening collar. Research has been handed down through the males of the family until his father created the current model. Kyungsoo was raised to learn about the collars and why the corruptions of certain  _gifted_  were happening. Before his untimely death, his father discovered that a body can house two gifts when under the right conditions - the corruption allowing this to happen, so instead of preventing the corruption, Kyungsoo was appointed head of the team that leads the experiments.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Director. He also deals with the patients reaching final stages of corruption on the fourth floor.

**Name:**  Zhang Yixing;  _sanitatem clan_  
 **Age:**  33  
 **Ability:**  Healing; he is able to heal himself and others through touch but his ability also allows him to sense where injuries are or when someone nearby is injured or sick.  
 **Background:**  His ancestors were part of the group who created the original dampening collar. Yixing was raised in a medical centre, learning to heal patients and strengthen his abilities while studying genetics and neuroscience. He met Alice when she was eight and became like a brother to her, he was with her through everything but he was told that he could never tell her about what she really went through and the accident that created it all. His father made him promise to keep watch over her and enlisted her to train as a nurse while Yixing continued his study and helped Kyungsoo with the corruption research. He’s fond of Alice like a brother and she’s one of the few people he enjoys being around. Their connection allows him to sense her injuries further away.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** He’s the doctor that tends to patient’s physical injuries outside of the corruption - the one thing he cannot cure.

**Name:**  Alice Wallace;  _amino clan_  
 **Age:**  28  
 **Abilities:**  Telekinesis and Mind Reading; able to move any object with her mind and uses it to incapacitate her patient when uncooperative, she is also able to create a one way communication between another living creature and read their foremost thoughts - in some cases, she can see images.  
 **Background:**  Alice’s origins are unknown to her as a terrible accident when she was eight caused a gap in her memories until she was ten. To her knowledge, she has always had two abilities and thought she was discarded to the medical centre to cure her. She is the last known survivor of the  _amino clan_ , known only to have lived on the outskirts of Astra and is believed to be the last of her house due to the clan having been attacked twenty years ago for unknown reasons. She is closest with Yixing, who is like a brother to her and has a dysfunctional sibling-like relationship with Chanyeol and Sehun as they all went through training together. Alice is kind and loving at heart and doesn’t enjoy watching people suffer but is quick to react and doesn’t have much patience.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Nurse. Her patient is Kim Jongin; arrogant and cocky with a mouth of filth and a mind to match it.

**Name:**  Kim Jongin;  _locus clan_  
 **Age:** 27  
 **Ability:** Teleportation; able to distort time and space and move ones body from one place to another. His ability also allows him to move other objects and people with him.  
 **Background:** Grew up in a safe and stable home, his family were held in high regard to their ability to transport food and water to places without effort; on his eighteenth birthday, an accident caused the family to perish and Jongin was blamed. He spent two years going through the process of being stripped of everything he knew which included daily beatings; after which he was branded with the number eighty-eight and named Kai - the death bringer - a sign of his crime. Jongin was always a sweet, caring soul and would be seen smiling daily but after seven years on the streets, he holds hate deep in his heart and has become the monster everyone deems him as.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Patient. His nurse is Alice Wallace; impatient and irritable but Jongin enjoys taunting her with explicit images to entertain himself.

**Name:**  Park Chanyeol;  _ignis clan_  
 **Age:** 30  
 **Ability:** Pyrokinesis; able to create fire with a simple thought, resistant to fire and can control fire and heat. His ability is also mood related and the angrier he is, the hotter it burns.  
 **Background:** The younger sibling of Park Hyuna, a patient who died after exploding and wiping out several nurses and patients in the room and setting fire to the fourth floor of the Asylum. Chanyeol began training as a nurse when his sister was disowned from the family for aborting a child; he wanted to do whatever he could to help his sister and thought that becoming a nurse would allow him to be on the streets of Astra, helping the sick. When Hyuna was admitted into Astra Asylum for corruption, Chanyeol became more determined to finish his training and have her as his patient - he was too late. An older role model for Alice and Sehun, Chanyeol tries his best to remain calm - though, he tends to flare up when he hears the lewd words that come from a certain patient’s mouth.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Nurse. His patient is Kim Jongdae; loud and whines constantly about the sun.

**Name:**  Oh Sehun;  _ventus clan_  
 **Age:** 27  
 **Ability:** Aerokinesis; able to manipulate, control and alter air molecules and wind currents using his mind. His ability allows him to fly due to manipulating the air around him.  
 **Background:** The only child in his house, Sehun was pressured to create a family the moment he turned 18 but he refused, not caring about carrying on the family tree because he would rather waste his days sleeping and sneaking out to the slums to party with the wrong crowd. Sehun became a nurse due to his parents giving him an ultimatum - either create an heir and get married or do something to help society. Society won. Alice and Sehun argue and fight constantly but Sehun is there when she rants about her patient - though he sees them as pets rather than humans. He cares for those he loves and if he doesn’t love you - then you mean nothing to him.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Nurse. His patient is Byun Baekhyun; carefree and gives Sehun little problems.

**Name:**  Byun Baekhyun;  _lux clan_  
 **Age:** 32  
 **Ability:** Light Manipulation; able to create, shape and manipulate visible light.  
 **Background:** Baekhyun is the child of a gifted and non-gifted; his powers did not match that of his father and so he was casted out of his house and lived on the streets. He lived several years alone before being found and had a collar placed around his neck; before then, he lived with several homeless and provided light in the abandoned school they resided in. He’s one of the less violent patients despite his corruption; Baekhyun enjoys living in the Asylum and sees no reason to fight or resist when he has free food, a place to sleep and is able to spend his days lying in the sun or drawing in the rec room.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Patient. His nurse is Oh Sehun; rough around the edges and treats Baekhyun like a puppy rather than person.

**Name:**  Kim Jongdae;  _tonitrua clan_  
 **Age:** 32  
 **Ability:** Thunder Manipulation; able to create and manipulate the shock waves caused by lightning during a storm. His ability also allows him to absorb electricity to use as an offensive.  
 **Background:** Jongdae was arrested at 27 when he discovered that his gift was able to allow him to short circuit the collars and he would walk the streets, freeing anyone he felt like - including criminals. Unable to find any other way to deal with the problem, he was forced to wear a collar of his own and was not allowed to step foot of his house ground. A year later, he wound up in Astra Asylum with early symptoms of corruption; his first nurse was killed during the evacuation when Park Hyuna exploded and Jongdae was in intensive care being healed daily by Dr Zhang Yixing for third degree burns. His current nurse, Chanyeol, and him found it difficult to bond at first but have become close in recent months.   
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Patient. His nurse is Park Chanyeol; caring and always wearing a smile. He often takes Jongdae to Astra for new things.

**Name:**  Kim Junmyeon;  _aqua clan_  
 **Age:** 34  
 **Ability:** Hydrokinesis; able to create, shape and manipulate water, inorganic compound with liquid, gas (steam, water vapor), and solid (ice) states, including changing them from one state to other.   
 **Background:** When Kyungsoo approached Junmyeon about the inner workings of corruption, he became obsessed. Working alongside Kyungsoo, Junmyeon discovered how the mind functioned while in a corrupted state, why corruptions happened and what abilities were better suited to combine. With his ability, Junmyeon was able to make the serums move faster through the veins which meant that they would be able to work within the small time frame before the patient dies. Junmyeon was shunned out of his family for using his gift for such things but thanks to his research and constant work with patients at Astra Asylum, Junmyeon barely feels the loss of his house and clan.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:**  Corruption Specialist/Psychiatrist. He deals with the patients in regards to their corruption progression, the way their corruption is presenting and how to help them.

**Name:**  Kim Minseok;  _glacies clan_  
 **Age:** 36  
 **Ability:**  Cryokinesis; psychic ability to slow down the movement of particles/atoms in matter to alter temperature, possibly to the point of freezing an object completely. He is also immune to the cold.  
 **Background:**  Minseok grew up learning how to observe people, his quiet nature allowing him to remain unnoticed in crowds and cold features causing people to steer clear of him. Kyungsoo chose him because of his observation skills and made him head of personnel at the Asylum as well as making patients and nurses report to him on a monthly basis to make sure that things are running smoothly. His ability also provides great use for the Asylum when they need to freeze serums and keep surgery rooms at cool temperatures to ensure a corrupted patient doesn’t expire before the experiment is complete. Minseok feels no attachment to anyone he works with and is only close with Junmyeon because they started at Astra Asylum at the same time.  
 **Position at Astra Asylum:** Head of Personnel/Psychiatrist. Nurses and patients need to report to him to make sure they are working well together or if they wish to have a day trip.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In different life, Jongin would have lived a good life - a happy life but this isn’t the life he lives now. His mind has been corrupted, his body working against him and his life means nothing to those experimenting on him - except for her. The one shred of hope he clings to and the one person he can’t seem to push away.

****

Homeless.

That’s what they called him, that’s what he was classed as when kicked out on the street and a collar clamped around his neck – imprisoning him, defaming him, stripping him of his clan. Homeless, unwanted, unloved. Words brandished like swords as they cut deep into his back – scaring his supple caramel skin for the world to see.

Life wasn’t always so hard, he was privileged, gifted with powers and belonged to a house that held much power in Astra; but one mistake tore that away faster than he could blink, the house he grew up in burned to the ground on his eighteenth birthday, his family perishing inside and Jongin was left without a home, a family or a name.

Kai – the death bringer.

That was what they called him; his fault, it was his fault his family died in that fire while he survived. Many thought it was on purpose, a way for him to become the head of his house and claim a seat in his clan but no-one wanted to hear the truth – they didn’t care about that.

They just saw him as filth when the authorities arrived and dragged him away, screaming, beating him into silence as the neighbours watched the fall of the great house of Kim. His clan turned their backs, people he considered brothers spat at his name and in the dark, damp cells – Jongin was whipped into submission and secured a dampening collar around his neck to suppress his powers.

The blessed son of the house of Kim, Kim Jongin, became nothing more than a number and new name.

Astra, the country formed to rebuild the new world; built and made with the purpose of bettering the human race when the super-war nearly wiped out its existence.

Their ancestors did terrible things to their soldiers, experimented on them to create super-soldiers then sent the successful subjects off to fight someone’s war. It wasn’t just one country, it was all – no-one was safe from these experiments. Children, woman, anyone who could walk and talk were taken from homes and forced into a gurney for months on end.

Failed test subjects? There were many, many bodies piled into graves and buried for future generations to find and place them down as part of history’s greatest shame.

Offspring from the survivors were first classed as ‘cursed’, cursed for sharing the genes of those who destroyed the world, to no fault of their own but when they were needed – when the clans were first formed and they were originally shunned into their own clan; they were called upon when things needed to be built, when water supplies began running low and when there was long, dark days where crops wouldn’t grow.

When it became convenient, they were no longer cursed but ‘gifted’. Gifted with powers that could better the lives of themselves and everyone else around them so they were lifted in the twisted hierarchy of Astra, the nine houses that formed the clan became the most powerful and respected names for the last 150 years.

Until some decided that they shouldn’t be treated as Gods but used as animals, thankfully the clans deemed this ‘inhumane’ and they should learn from their forefathers’ mistakes. Some decided that those who wielded these powers were a danger and their powers should be contained and too many agreed with this; so laws were changed and anyone from any clan, gifted or not, were to break these laws then the consequences would be severe.

That’s how the homeless came to be.

If clans were made up of houses that specialised in certain areas: science, engineering, medical, gifted, mechanics, etc; then the homeless were those who broke laws and were cast from their houses, stripped from their clan, disowned from their names and left to live on the streets.

Unloved, unwanted, shunned and left to die in the eyes of those who consider themselves better because they had a home, a clan and a name that stood for something.

Kim Jongin, son of the house Kim, a house who were able to manipulate space around them and teleport from one place to the next became Kai – a name that meant  _death bringer_  because he was convicted of a crime he never committed; forced to wear a power dampening collar around his neck until the day he dies while the city watches.

Over seven years, he grew angry, he felt hatred towards those who had a clan because he was wrongly accused and stripped of all he knew. Seven years of never feeling the power rush through his body even though he can feel it in his fingertips at times, the green light of the collar taunting him as he sits in the dark and a face that never knew nothing but smiles and laughter has been transformed into a permanent scowl with dark eyes.

“State your name and number,” the man at the food bank drawls as Jongin stands before the barred glass.

“Kai, number eighty-eight.” He coughs; tasting blood in his mouth as the man leans away, not wanting to be contaminated by a homeless. “I need medication, too.” The man’s face scrunches up, annoyed with having to do more work than normal for a man who is considered beneath him.

“Here’s the food you’ve been allowed for the day,” the man slides across a small box filled with discoloured water, dried meat and mushed vegetables, two granola bars and a soft banana. Jongin’s lips curls at the food, his stomach has shrunken to the point where eating anything more than this would make him feel ill but decent nutrition wouldn’t take too much for the government to provide.

A government who would rather forget his existence and have him and anyone else cast out of their clans disappear from the face of Astra.

“Isn’t there any other water? This looks like it was taken from the puddle outside.” Jongin inquires which only causes the man to scoff in disbelief.

“Be lucky you got anything,  _Kai_.” His given name is said with pure disgust. There have been rumours circling around him; ‘ _death bringer_ ’, that’s what his given name means, a name given to a monster like him which people say suits him because no matter where he goes, people have disappeared – assumed dead and even with no proof of his involvement, Jongin is always suspected or blamed.

So he has to move to another place.

“I suggest you go get checked out before you contaminate someone who has a family to go home to.” The man snarls and Jongin glares at him with enough ferocity that he quickly calls for the next person – afraid he’ll end up the next victim.

He walks down the street, frustrated as people look away from him and shuffle quickly across the street, children stare at his collar while whispering about how it ‘contains the monster’ and how lucky they are that no-one in their families are freaks like those having to wear those things around their necks.

Monster.

The word angers him, he didn’t ask to be born into this life, he didn’t ask to be given powers and born into a clan that ranked higher than others because he was gifted. He didn’t ask for his powers to safely teleport him away from the danger when an electrical fault happened while everyone was asleep. Jongin remembers the day as if it was yesterday, tears stinging the corners of his eyes but refusing to fall.

➳ _Jongin wakes to the choking stench of smoke as he rolls out of bed and teleports to his sister’s room, Junhee was still fast asleep and her breathing shallow as Jongin tried to wake her; calling her name before dragging her to the floor with him._

➳ _His body vibrates with energy but he’s not yet mastered teleporting another being, objects were easy, their mass distorted and reconstructed easier than living beings and Jongin was going to start his training next week. He tries to concentrate, the smoke hurting his eyes as he clenches them shut and imagines his parent’s room with all his might. He feels the pull and then sudden pain as he’s being torn between the two spaces – his body not able to transition because of his hold on his sister’s hand._

➳ _“Junhee,” he croaks, throat raw from the inhalation of smoke and he tries to wake her again – failing once more. He makes the painful decision to let go, hoping if he can wake his parents then he’ll be able to get them all to safety. “Eomma,” he cries, coughing as he collapses to the floor. Jongin can’t see anything as he tries to crawl towards the foot of the bed. “Appa,” his body grows weak as he reaches out towards the blankets – black spots forming in front of his eyes before he feels his body shifting through space._

➳ _Not now._

➳ _He tries to remain focused on the room but his mind is weak, his defence instincts kick in as he is teleported away from the danger and to the cold, wet grass of his front yard; noise erupts around him but his consciousness fades before anyone reaches him and in his mind he screams out for his family._

“You lost, scum?” A deep voice dissipates his memory as Jongin’s attention is pulled into reality and up to the scowl of an officer. “You don’t seem to know the rules that surround  _your_  kind.” Jongin leans against the wall where he decided to make his bed for the night and glares up at the officer; daring him to try test his patience today.

“What’s wrong with me sleeping here? Has every clanned fucker decided that today will be the day to piss me off?” Jongin begins coughing again, throat feeling like its ripping apart as he tries to remain looking as murderous as he can. “Can you just get off my back and let me wallow in this shit of a life I live, in peace?” The officer steps back and Jongin thinks he’s going to back away like the man at the shelter did but instead he hears the clicking of a radio before the man speaks.

“Code Red. I repeat Code Red. I have a homeless with an unidentifiable illness; waiting for orders.” Jongin raises an eyebrow in confusion as the officer looks over his dirty outfit and slouched form before his eyes rest upon the green light that is constantly alight on his collar.

 _“Does the homeless display any warning signs of being corrupted?”_   _Corrupted?_  Jongin becomes interested in the conversation as his suspicion rises and the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end; he starts to think about all the other homeless who have been disappearing from shelters over the past few months. All had slight illnesses that didn’t seem dangerous, more like having a cold except some would have a blood nose or cough up blood. Jongin remembers some of them talking about how they would visit a clinic to make sure it weren’t a virus but after a week, they disappeared.

No-one mentioned a word to him, though. Jongin never heard these conversations directly; he more or less over heard them. People didn’t dare speak or be seen associating with him, thanks to the name given to him when he was stripped of his clan, people steer clear of Kai.

“Stand up and state your name and number,” when Jongin doesn’t move, his body tired and sore but his mind wanting to push the boundary, the officer steps forward and repeats himself with more authority. “I said, stand up and state your name and number.” Jongin shakes his head, defiantly crossing his arms across his chest and pretending to make himself more comfortable – as comfortable as he can get on the cold, wet concrete.

“Why? I’m not doing any harm.” The officer’s face contorts into anger, his clear order being defied by a homeless as smug as him, so he raises his gun and points it in Jongin’s face.

“Do as you are fucken told, homeless or else I’ll toss you into the deepest hole I can find and you’ll never see the sun again.” The threat means nothing to Jongin but when a homeless child walks past, collar light red instead of green, he obliges and rises to his feet.

The collars serve two purposes; suppressing the powers of the gifted and allowing anyone to identify the clanned from the homeless. The lights showed whether the wearer is gifted or not; red meant that you are homeless, just an unwanted, regular human who has been cast out to the street and made an example of to those around you. Red light homeless are common; you are either born into this life or made this way due to hardship. Green means you are a repressed gifted homeless; no-one who is gifted is born into this life which shows the world that you have done something truly terrible, broken some sacred law for your clan to be stripped, your name taken and you to be cast out to the streets.

Green means you are a monster; a monster who cannot even use their powers – so you are a freak.

No-one who lives in a clan ever questioned the way the world worked, never having to see the life some had to live; for a world that is meant to be better than the one before, their equality between the people is one of the most fucked up things Jongin has come to learn. It didn’t matter years ago when he had a full stomach, clean clothes and a name that didn’t cause people to look the other way but living on the streets, drinking literal gutter water and eating scraps, he’s come to see things for what they are; but now he can’t see how they can allow children to wear these demeaning devices around their necks.

How can the world allow such innocence be tainted by a choice these children were never given?

“Where are we going?” Jongin asks, disgruntled as he’s jostled around in the back of the police car. The moment his attention wavered towards the young child, who watched the officer pull his gun out at Jongin, the officer took his chance to arrest him without any cause or explanation.

“Where you can’t infect anyone else; people like you are a disgrace to the hard work our ancestors created years ago.” Jongin’s top lip curls upwards as he tries to break the handcuffs, to no avail. “It’ll be a blessing having all the homeless off the streets…” Jongin starts to tune out the incessant hate talk; he’s heard it all before, the hate the clanned have for the homeless but he has never been one to participate – no-one gifted ever did.

Staring out the window, the talking of the officer soon becomes nothing but background noise and the scenery soon changes from the concrete grey of the city to the forest green of trees that Jongin didn’t realise sits outside of the confines of the city he grew up in. He feels a cough beginning to tickle the back of his throat, the feeling becoming familiar as he tries to quickly clear his throat but after a few attempts, the feeling doesn’t go away and the moment he begins to cough – his body soon shakes with violently as he hardly finds time to breathe. The officer watches with disdain as Jongin leans forward, the coughing ripping his throat apart and shortly into the coughing fit; he’s gagging and tasting blood on his tongue.

He doesn’t hear the engine revving slightly as the officer quits talking to get them to their destination faster – afraid that Jongin will get him sick as well.

When he finally settles down, dry retching one last time and looking at the blood on his hand, Jongin tries to regain his breathe, chest heaving as he swallows and shakes at the taste that remains in his mouth. He wipes the back of his hand across his watering dark eyes and he wipes the blood off his palm and onto his stained, ripped jeans – the colour unknown due to the amount of grime, food and blood forever on them.

Jongin used to find his blood a strange sight, the liquid almost fascinating him whenever a clanned felt like he needed to ‘ _learn his place_ ’, after a few weeks, he would be more shocked if he didn’t bleed at least once a day – whether through injuries he sustained in fights or from living on the streets. Today, in this moment, his blood fascinates him more than ever because it’s tinged with black – he makes sure he gets rid of all the blood visible as not to cause any more alarm than he already has.

The officer is already looking for a ready to put him down and Jongin doesn’t want to give him a firm reason.

He tries to think as to what has caused this anomaly, years of not using his knowledge causing him to knot his eyebrows together in frustration and confusion; the car begins to slow down before coming to a full stop in front of an old hospital that is out of place in the forest that surrounds it. Jongin examines it while the officer retrieves him and he can make out the faded brass plaque that sits next to large doors with peeling red paint.

_Astra Asylum._

“Asylum?” Jongin queries as the officer drags him from the back of the police car and pushes him in the direction of the ominous closed doors. “What the fuck am I doing here? I’m not crazy, I’m fucken sick; I should be going to a damn hospital.” He stumbles on the first step when the officer pushes him a little harsher and this is where his temper snaps. Jongin twirls around quickly, hands straining against the metal cuffs digging into his wrists but halts his attack when the barrel of a pistol is pressed into his flank – touching a healing bruise.

“Orders from the higher ups, Kai; trust me, if it were up to me then you’d be dead in the damn ditch back in Astra but I’ve got orders I need to follow so,” the officer encourages him with the gun, “ _move_.”

The ascension of the stairs feels like a countdown to something dreadful; Jongin’s heart begins to race, the dark hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand on end and goosebumps cover his arms when he stops in front of a door that stands near twice his height.

The entrance was anti-climactic, Jongin expected men in white outfits to come and restrain him, drag him towards the closest padded cell but instead the officer guides him towards an office where a man waits; wearing thick rimmed black glasses and a large white lab coat with the institute’s name sewn into it. The man is sat behind a large oak desk, scattered with multiple loose papers and files; his heart-shaped lips pull into a smile when he sees Jongin sit down in the chair across from him, the air feeling slightly colder and a shiver travels down his spine.

This man doesn’t give him a welcoming feeling despite the smile that rests upon his pretty lips.

In fact, Jongin feels like he would have been better dying on the street.


	3. Chapter Two

“Welcome to Astra Asylum, Mr. Kim.” Jongin looks up into the other man’s eyes with astonishment; it’s been seven long years since someone referred to him by a name that wasn’t Kai. “Yes, I know who you are.” He reaches out and wraps long fingers around the file that’s open in front of him, beginning to read the contents aloud. “Birth name: Kim Jongin, born on the 14th of January 2994; born into the  _locus_  clan and gifted with teleportation.” The man places the file back on the desk, sighing heavily. “It’s such a shame that a power as rare as yours was cast out onto the street and contained by,” he waves a pale hand at Jongin’s neck, “such primitive measures, especially after a horrible incident like the death of your family.”

“I didn’t do it!” Jongin slams his cuffed hands down on the hardwood, teeth clenched in anger and frustration. “I didn’t fucken do it, not that anyone bloody listens.” The man nods slowly, looking over the rim of his glasses at Jongin’s hostile appearance.

“Well, here at Astra Asylum, we are here to listen to everything no-one else will. Starting tomorrow, you will be placed in the care of a nurse and a doctor; the nurse is to be any and everything you need them to be while your doctor will take care of that cough of yours – amongst other things.” Jongin quirks an eyebrow but before he can ask any more questions, two tall male nurses arrive from the closed door behind him and lift him from the chair.

Jongin struggles at first, determined to break their hold as if he had any chance of escape but both men hold firm.

“Who are you?” Jongin calls as the nurse with the disinterested scowl on his face pulls harder on his bicep while the taller male with large ears and oddly coloured hair opens the door. “What is your name?” Jongin demands at least this question answered.

“Director Do Kyungsoo. We’ll be seeing each other soon, Jongin.” Kyungsoo’s chilling smile is the last thing Jongin sees from the neatly kept office before he’s dragged out into the foyer of the large establishment and towards the stairs.

* * *

As Jongin is taken to the second floor and led down a hallway filled with doors – he takes a good look at the men holding him by his biceps. The one who looks extremely bored, gives brief eye contact, his near obsidian eyes bore into Jongin’s soul before he huffs and looks away; his hair is black and styled handsomely out of his face – a strange style for a male nurse working with a bunch of nut jobs. His eyebrows are thick and dark, jaw line sharp and he’s cleanly shaven with pink lips sitting in a permanent scowl and Jongin wonders if he ever smiles.

They pause in front of a metal door with his name on it – almost as if he was expected.

“We got the call over an hour ago to set up a room for a ‘Kim Jongin’.” The deep voice speaks quietly from his right – the other nurse he’s yet to suss out. The man’s hair colour seems to change, depending on what angle you look at it; Jongin swore it was a pale pink but now it seems splattered with some baby blue, the shaggy bowl cut style gives him a youthful look with his ears sticking out from underneath but Jongin is sure he’s older by the way he holds himself. Tall, confident with a warm aura surrounding him – an older brother feel without mentioning any honorifics.

“Do I get a shower?” Jongin’s voice is deeper, slightly rough around the edges as it echoes down the quiet hall, his tone harsh from years of living on the streets and needing to adopt a hard demeanour. He indicates to the clean white linen on the bed then to the filthy clothes he’s wearing.

“There’s a bathroom, equipped with a shower adjacent to the room, over there,” the stoic nurse points with a long finger to the door on the left of the room. “If a shower is what you want, take one; anything else you can ask the nurse assigned to your grouchy ass tomorrow,” his tone matches his expression so perfectly, it begins to annoy Jongin. “Hope it isn’t me.” With a firm shove, Jongin stumbles into the room before the door is slammed shut and locked behind him.

Looking around the room provides no information as to what this institute is actually for; the room is completely bare except for a bed, beside cabinet and two shelves on the wall to the right – white, bright and lifeless. The bathroom is nearly as bare; toilet paper, toothbrush with paste, two towels and body wash that smells so acrid, Jongin throws it in the stainless steel bin in the corner.

“I’d rather smell like the gutter than smell like that shit.” He knows he shouldn’t be picky about what he is given, a hot shower with proper pressure has been a luxury over the years but he still refuses to allow it anywhere near him.

➳ _He’s running, he can smell smoke, the thick black smoke that clouds his vision, stings his eyes and invades his nostrils; his throat is raw as he continues to cough, only to have more smoke to invade his lungs as he tries to breathe._

➳ _He can see them at the front door of his burning home; he can hear his name being called through the smoke over the roaring of the frames. He tries to get to them faster, get to his family before they disappear, they always disappear; he can feel the energy tingle in his bones, his muscles flexing to prepare for teleportation but then his head feels heavy, a green light blinds him and his feet freeze to the spot while the flames lick around him – burning everything around him, including his family._

“No!” Jongin bolts upright; sweat dripping down his brow, heart racing and his dark eyes frantically searches the unfamiliar room for any sign of disturbance – the room he now calls home.

Movement out of the corner of his eye causes him to jump out of his bed and assume a defensive stance; ready to fight if he needs to. The figure, hidden away from the only light of the room in the corner, doesn’t react with any other movement than their head bowing and the sound of pen scratching against paper begins to fill the silent room.

“Who are you?” Jongin growls, the head lifting to acknowledge they heard him. “What the fuck do you want?” They give no answer, only standing and straightening their uniform before taking a step forward into the light that constantly illuminates half the room on the wall by the entrance to his room.

It’s a woman, she stand at Jongin’s height with her black heels; her white uniform hugs her curves almost too snuggly while the skirt sits mid-thigh with nude diaphanous stockings to complete the outfit.

 _“All she needs is a nurse’s cap and she could be my dirty little fantasy.”_  Jongin thinks to himself and the woman tilts her head to the side slightly with the faintest of smirks ghosting her painted pink lips.

Jongin notices her eyes aren’t like those he’s seen around the streets of Astra – a bright ocean blue would stand out amongst the shades of brown and black he’s grown up with. Her face could blend in with a crowd if she so chose to but her eyes and gentle, natural smirk that rests upon her supple lips would bring attention from anywhere she went. Her dark blonde hair is pulled into a tight ponytail and Jongin is certain she’s not from Astra.

“Close,” her voice startles him, unexpectedly her voice isn’t sickly sweet like he assumed but it has a medium tone that seems to echo through the room despite her not speaking very loudly. “I’m just not what you’ve seen before.” Jongin’s eyes widen and he takes a step back, fear coursing through his body as he is certain she can hear his thoughts. “That’s correct,” she tilts her head to the side when another thought crosses his mind before vanishing, “yes I did hear the comment about the nurse’s cap; I shall remember for next time if it helps getting you to co-operate.”

“I’ve never heard of a house who has that kind of gift,” Jongin’s voice is shaky, he doesn’t like things he does not know and this person, her abilities are two things that he doesn’t know.

“My name is Alice,” she offers, hearing his worries. “Some houses were lost due to families becoming homeless,” Jongin winces at the word, he’s from one of those houses – the sole survivor of his family and now his house – the one who can teleport himself and others – is lost to the world. “Some children are born homeless but some,” she offers a sad smile, “are cast from their families for not fitting the houses they were born into.” Jongin’s eyebrows pull together in confusion, he remembers stories, myths about naughty children being sent far away because they disobeyed their parents – it was stories to frighten children into listening and behaving. “But that is a story for another day.”

“No,” Jongin growls, sitting down on his bed as if to get comfortable for story time; he’s not going anywhere until this woman tells him  _something_  to prove he can trust her. “You know everything about me, you can read my damn thoughts and yet you expect me to trust you when you can’t give me anything about yourself.”

“The file said you were stubborn,” she lifts a hand in his direction and Jongin feels a rush of power course through his body before he moves to the edge of the bed, standing up and facing Alice. “How about we get through the day first and,” she walks towards the door, Jongin following behind with a pissed off look on his face, “once we have settled, I’ll reveal something about myself.”

“You can control people too?” He immediately knows why she was cast from her family, she looks different, two gifts from two houses; this would have caused a scandal and brought shame to her house. He knows it’s not her fault but he can’t find it in himself to care about his thought process when he has no control over his body.

_Monster._

_Freak._

Words he heard for years now being spat in the direction of the woman walking in front of him. He smirks when her step falters a little, he notices her body shiver in reaction to those words and even though part of him hates himself for the things he hurls around in her mind in hopes she would hear it – most of him enjoys the way she reacts.

The walking and mental abuse goes on for a short while, they go up a flight of stairs before Alice stops them in front of a fancy white door with delicate gold markings and a gold brass handle. Jongin can hear gentle talking coming from the other side but neither make a move to enter; Alice stands still before the door with her back to Jongin while he looks around the hall.

There are five doors, each a different colour and at the end of the hall is a barred window showing the blue sky outside. Jongin can’t remember seeing the sky unbroken, the city life meant the horizon was filled with buildings all around but out here, there was nothing around the building.

Once the gentle talking stopped, Alice knocked to alert whoever was inside to their presence before opening the door and stepping in; the power that kept Jongin still disappeared and his toes wriggled in his worn shoes as Alice looked at him, expectedly.

“Aren’t you going to mind control me into the room?” He crosses his arms, refusing to move as Alice frowns.

“Alice, sweetie, did you force the young man here without telling him where he was going?” Alice bows her head, a small pout on her lips as she looks in the direction of the voice – hidden from Jongin’s view. “You can’t be mad that he’s being so stubborn, two way communication is key, remember?” It sounds like a father reprimanding his daughter and Jongin enters the room, purely out of curiosity; he jumps slightly when the door behind him shuts and locks without anyone touching it.

“I control whatever I want.” Alice hisses under her breath when he stands close enough to hear her. “I’m sorry, Dr Zhang,” she bows, Jongin leaning back slightly to check if her skirt rose up before he feels the same surge of power snap him back up straight. “I knew that you were busy this afternoon so didn’t want to cause him to wait. I was planning on getting him settled after his check-up.

Check-up?

“Such a model nurse, always wanting to get the job started instead of dilly dallying like our youngest or fire cracker; how are they settling with their new jobs? Are you all coping well?” Alice takes a deep breath, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly before answering.

“Dr Zhang, we are not here to talk about how the new nurses and I are adjusting to our new homes,” she turns to Jongin, who is observing the interaction with many questions whirling around his head – something that is causing a headache for her. “This is about our new patient.”

“Yes, one who needs to be seen right away,” as soon as Dr Zhang says this, Jongin’s nose begins to bleed and Alice rushes to his side; with surprisingly little resistance, she walks him towards the hospital bed against the wall and Jongin sits on it.

“How-” He reaches up, touching the slight trail of blood that’s touching his upper lip.

“Dr Zhang is a healer but he’s also in tune with people’s bodies; when someone close by is injured, he can sense this and reacts accordingly.” Alice pinches the bridge of his strong nose while cleaning the blood – not speaking of the black spots in the crimson but looking over at the doctor with worry lacing her features. “Shall we begin?”

The doctor pulls on latex gloves and drags over a cart filled with all sorts of medical supplies before standing next to his nurse; Alice grabs a clipboard and begins to write quickly on the chart while Dr Zhang doesn’t say a word – her telepathy allowing the examination to pass without a word spoken to each other but disturbing, and irritating, Jongin immensely.

“What’s wrong with me?” He asks gruffly; the doctor offers nothing but a smile, a dimple forming in his cheek as he grabs the clipboard from Alice.

“You are quite ill, Mr Kim; underweight, malnourished with several unattended injuries. It will take a few weeks to get you back to top shape but we can deal with some of your injuries today as well as cuts and bruises.” Jongin is about to protest when Dr Zhang grabs his wrist, placing his thumb on the pulse on his wrist and closing his eyes. With astonishment, Jongin watches as the grazed knuckles on both hands begin to fade and he feels the ache in his waist fade to a dull throb – several places still hurt slightly but nothing compared to what they were. “I can only do so much today but like I stated, a few weeks and you’ll feel like a new man, as for your cough and blood nose; this will take further testing to find the cause but I assure you, you have nothing to worry about.”

Alice lays out a pen light, tongue depressor, an otoscope and thermometer on top of the cart before moving towards the computer at the desk and typing up some prescriptions for Jongin.

“Once I have finished my examination, Alice will begin your induction to the facility and you will get to freshen up, change into more suitable clothes and eat.” Dr Zhang watches as Jongin uncomfortably shifts on the bed, before placing his stethoscope in his ears. “Please turn and lift your shirt up,” Jongin freezes, fear about his back being touched racing through his mind and Alice subconsciously lifts her head to look at him.

“Yixing,” using his first name catches Dr Zhang by surprise and he raises an eyebrow at the young nurse, “maybe that can be checked at another time, you have an appointment with another patient shortly.” His brows knit in confusion but he knows she wouldn’t speak informally without good reason so trusting her judgement, he moves onto checking Jongin’s eyes instead.

Once the examination is complete, Dr Zhang, finally introducing himself as Zhang Yixing, explained a little about what his and Alice’s role were here at Astra Asylum. There are a few doctors, Director Do Kyungsoo is also a doctor as well as Dr Kim Junmyeon, Dr Kim Minseok and himself who deal with the patients here; each patient is assigned a doctor and a nurse – the nurse is the constant who is the closest thing to a friend one can gain here. Jongin scoffs at this, not looking at Alice but wondering how they could ever become close when she refuses to tell him a thing; at this point he trusts Yixing more and that still isn’t a large amount.

He pretends not to hear her grumble in annoyance in the background.

He will interact with other patients and nurses and have free reign around the premises as long as their nurses is with them. Yixing also informs Jongin of never going to the fourth floor – being a secure floor for patients who are there for being dangers to themselves and other patients and are under lockdown 24/7; to Jongin, they are the crazy ones here but he doesn’t realise the real reason as to why.

He doesn’t quite grasp why he’s here, despite an unexplained illness that he thinks is being treated, Jongin doesn’t know why he’s in an asylum located in the middle of nowhere, far away from civilisation and even though he asks this question – the answer he receives is cryptic.

“You’re the last of your house; we wouldn’t want that gift to be corrupted.” Is all Yixing provides with the same warm smile that causes his dimple to appear and rushing Jongin and Alice out of his office, explaining he’s got to prepare for another patient and how he’ll see Jongin in a few days.

“When do I get to eat? I’m sure I won’t get any better if you continue to starve me.” Jongin’s remark begin to irk Alice but she doesn’t allow him to see her react, doesn’t allow him to know that she would give her own powers to not have to deal with him but instead she leads him to a room that is located down the hallway before the turn to his room on the second floor.

This place has so many rooms, so many hallways that Alice used to get lost when she first arrived but the rooms she’ll now frequent with Jongin have become easier for her to find when she began training as a nurse.

“You need to be cleaned up first,” she opens the door to a bathroom, a large tub sitting in the middle of the room with shelves filling one wall and a chair situated in front of a large mirror on another; the privacy windows allowing plenty of light to enter the room despite providing an obscure, blurry image of the outside world. “Please place your clothing in the bin over there while I prepare the bath.”

“Wait,” Alice can hear the panic in his thoughts but chooses to allow him to speak as to try calm his mind. “You are going to be washing me?” Alice only nods, pointing a finger at the bin and indicating for him to hurry.

“The longer you take, the longer it takes for you to eat. Don’t worry; you have nothing that interests me.” She turns the water on and adds some oils to the running water to help with Jongin’s aching muscles and hopefully make the grime easier to wash off – as per doctor’s orders.

 _What are you gay?_  The thought is loud, as if he is yelling at her and Alice wants nothing more than to snap her fingers and have him on her knees but she can almost hear Yixing reprimanding her for allowing her emotions to control her.

“No but it is forbidden for a nurse to become involved with a patient; plus you are arrogant and covered in filth, why would I find you attractive?” It’s Jongin’s turn to glare and as much as he wants to storm across the room and get aggressive, standing stark naked under her unwavering gaze causes him to feel less powerful and more vulnerable. “Get in the tub,” he hesitates at first, facial features not giving anything away but his mind bringing up the same fear about his back.

What about his back makes him so afraid? Alice wonders, ready to make him submit when he carefully moves towards her and gets in the hot water, sighing as the water warms his skin.

“I don’t want you touching or coming near my back, you can do anything else – just not that.” His voice is almost pleading, tugging at her mind and heart and she reluctantly agrees but that doesn’t stop her curiosity.

One day, she’ll find out why.

Yixing’s voice rang out in her mind while struggling to wash Jongin’s grimy hair; her connection with the doctor allowing him to reach her further than most minds. He reminds her that she is not to lose control around Jongin, knowing the young man’s arrogance and rough exterior will set her own temper to flair; she’s meant to be his calm in the storm and has to gain his trust if they are to prevent another tragedy from happening.

Alice wasn’t here when her colleague, Park Chanyeol’s sister got sick, went insane and caused an explosion that killed herself and several other patients and their nurses; that was three months ago, two months before Alice, Chanyeol and the younger nurse, Oh Sehun arrived at the facility after training as nurses in Astra.

It was then that doctors discovered problems in the design of the collars and those who wore them and decided to research the affected in a secure location – the ‘Corrupted’ was what they were called and recently three cases have been found in the past month who have shown signs without progressing beyond flu-like symptoms and blood noses.

It was their jobs to make sure they got better – not worse.

“You know,” Jongin’s voice sounding incredibly close brings Alice out of her thoughts, “if you wanted to be touching me so much, you could just jump in with me.” Even though her hands were still only in his hair, her rough washing has turned to gentle massaging as her mind trailed of in a tangent but thanks to Jongin’s annoying words, Alice nearly drowns him before telling him to wash his back while she goes to prepare the hairdresser chair for him to have a haircut and shave.

Jongin feels like a new man, still slightly tender in a few areas of his body but after a decent soak, haircut and a shave; Jongin looks at himself in the mirror with new eyes. His skin is clear, the natural golden skin slightly darker from being in the sun for years but is no longer covered in dirt and blood, his hair doesn’t cover his eyes, the slightly wet, dark locks is currently pushed back off his forehead as he runs a hand through it to marvel at the feel with no knots stopping his fingers; the clothing he wears is a red and black cotton shirt and black ripped jeans paired with black sneakers – chosen from the shelves.

“You can choose other items tomorrow when we go to gather some things for you from the city,” Jongin notices how Alice’s eyes wander over him before turning her attention elsewhere. “You stated you were hungry and now we shall go and eat.”

The walk from the bathroom to the dining area is short, the room being the first door down the flight of stairs. Alice explains, as they wait in line, that the ground floor is for communal activities: dining area, recreation room, therapy sessions, if they so need them, and other various things all take place on the ground floor. The second floor is living areas, no-one other than nurses are allowed in patient’s rooms and even though they are free to roam the place – they are not allowed anywhere without their nurse, something Yixing pointed out and Jongin wonders why it’s so important.

“Precautionary action,” Alice states, giving Jongin a tray of food when they reach the front of the line and leading him to a table; she won’t admit to him but she’s surprised he’s been co-operative yet she’s glad she hasn’t had to use her powers on him again.

Third floor is the medical wing, twice a week, Jongin will be taken there to see Dr Zhang and have bloods taken – this causes Jongin to freeze mid-bite but soon his hunger outweighs his fear and he begins to devour his food like a starved wolf. The fourth floor is off limits – no-one is allowed up there unless granted permission by Director Kyungsoo and Alice can’t even give clear indication of what’s on that floor other than dangerous patients. Jongin isn’t satisfied completely with the answer given by both Alice and Dr Zhang but knows it’s all he’s going to get.

She can’t without revealing the truth about this place.

“Did Daddy tell you off for being so rude to me earlier?” Jongin speaks between mouthfuls and Alice slowly chews her food while watching him inhale his. “Is that why you’re being more forthcoming with information?” Alice shrugs, the answer more ambiguous than he likes to think.

“In order for this to work, we need to trust each other; you have obvious trust issues and so providing information will help you trust me.” Jongin raises an eyebrow, surprised at her blasé response. “Also, he’s not my father.”

“Then who is?” Jongin pries, hoping to learn  _something_  about his nurse outside of the information provided about this place.

“Eat first; I will answer three questions when we are back in your room.” She returns to her own food while Jongin eyes her suspiciously. How can he trust her when she’s closed off about herself; how can he even begin to believe she’s a friend and not his enemy if she keeps as many walls around her as he does with himself.

Ignoring the thoughts hurdling around his mind, Alice continues to eat, hoping the satisfaction from the food will cause his thoughts to stop. Alice knows that this is her job, she spent years training for this, training to be a nurse to a sick gifted patient but a few hours with Jongin has shown her that this isn’t going to be easy; he’s definitely going to make her work cut out for her.


	4. Chapter Three

Jongin feels tired after eating, Alice can hear his thought process slowing down as he polishes off his third plate and feels the discomfort in his distended stomach from overeating. She told him before he went for the third plate of crispy chicken but of course; stubbornness caused the arrogant and hungry man to ignore his nurse.

“I don’t want to sleep,” he grumbles, fighting her trying to lift him up and help him back to his room. “I want to explore some of this fucked up hospital.” His crude words cause her to roll her eyes and Alice struggles to hold his weight.

“Stop being a giant child,” her voice is strained as she tries to pull him but Jongin doesn’t budge, his body may be weak still but he’s a bigger build than her and Alice throws her hands up in frustration – having to use her last resort.

Watching her hand raise slowly and feeling the unfamiliar surge of energy travel to his legs, Jongin glares at her before being met with her back. How dare she use her powers on him again! How dare she control him, treat him like a fucken puppet when he can’t even use his own powers!

“Why do you keep fucken doing this?!” He yells, not caring if anyone hears him – not that there is anyone around this cursed place to hear him. “You can’t win everything by using your powers, especially on someone who can’t even access their own!” Alice doesn’t respond, briskly walking while breathing deeply to keep her anger under control; suddenly Jongin’s arms are restricted in their movements and by the time they reach the top of the stairs, the only thing under his control is his mind.

 _You cannot control me!_ He screams at her, watching her clutching her left ear as if he just yelled in it.  _This is inhumane! You’re meant to be a nurse and yet you’re a monster! They call me a monster, clamp a collar around my neck and throw me out to the streets but it’s_ you _who should locked away from the world._ He can tell she’s holding back, she’s angry and he can feel the fluctuation in her power in his body – the grip she has on him growing stronger before lessening in the slightest.

How far can he push her?

How much damage can she do?

He’s about to continue his abuse, a new string of insults lined up to be hurled into her mind when his door is thrown open and he’s shoved against the wall with no escape – the door locked behind him.

“Do you have a death wish? Are you really that far gone?” Jongin knows the only reason she’s got the upper hand is because her power is preventing him from moving, from defending himself. “I’m trying to help you and you keep  _shouting_  in my head,” she shoves away from him, rubbing her temples while her energy exits his muscles. “You really are a stubborn idiot.” Jongin grabs Alice’s wrist to prevent her from getting further away – she promised answers earlier and he’ll get them one way or another.

“You told me I could have three questions once we got back here, we’re here, back in this blinding white room now answer my first one.” Alice tries to pull away but his grip is too strong, he tugs her back against his chest, grabbing her other wrists, holding her against him and smirking at her feeble attempts to break his hold. “What, not going to use your powers to will me away?” He goads, Alice notices his pupils have dilated and the smirk seems more crazed than the cocky one he gave earlier. Alice wants to control him, push him away from her so she can’t feel his heartbeat against her fist that’s pressed against his strong chest but by the symptoms he’s displaying – Alice’s mission now is to calm his temper, not add fuel to the fire.

“No, I’m sorry, Jongin.” She tries a steady voice, bowing her head and showing a more submissive side in hopes that he’d settle down. “I’m sorry for forcing you into the room, I shouldn’t have done that.” She hates playing the helpless woman; she’s anything but that but the more Jongin displays aggressive behaviour, the faster he’ll succumb to his illness.

It’s inevitable, not everyone gets sick but those who do, its like a ticking time bomb. The first cases were unexplainable, there was no discernible pattern as to who got sick or not; various ages, gender, gifts, heritage, race even medical records were checked out but nothing ever seemed to fit together until two patients were admitted at the same time – Park Hyuna and Byun Baekhyun.

Both were homeless, Chanyeol’s sister exiled from her family for some reason Alice can’t remember but Baekhyun was born there, left to fend for himself on the streets because he was mixed – his father gifted but his mother from the science clan and this meant that when his powers displayed, if they didn’t meet his father’s house, he went to the streets. If he was born with nothing at all, he was allowed to live with his mother but Byun Baekhyun was born with the gift to control light – his father wasn’t.

A week after being admitted, Baekhyun lived his days as relaxed as he could – this was paradise compared to living on the streets but Hyuna became aggressive, her symptoms manifesting at a greater speed than Baekhyun until three weeks later; she died.

Well, exploded in a fiery ball of inferno while Baekhyun is still living his life as carefree as he had since arriving. His symptoms have progressed in the slightest, he has moments where he is in bed for days with hot flushes or vomiting but the doctors at Astra Asylum managed to find out what causes the illness to spread faster through the patient because of this disastrous event.

Anger, aggression – this is why they are called the “Corrupted”.

The collars have a flaw, in most gifted homeless who wear them, there is no problem but for some of those whom gifts are slightly more powerful, it causes the brain to attack itself. It tears itself apart from the inside. At first, it’s blood noses, flu-like symptoms as if the body is fighting off an infection but eventually, it causes mood swings, the wearer will become rather aggressive and in some cases, physical but eventually the wearer will regress back to normal and usually have no recollection of these states. The next stage is when the wearer is completely insane; talking to themselves, manic behaviour or suicidal tendencies – this is the stage where they are monitored 24/7 and plans are made to move them to the fourth floor for confinement away from other patients.

The final stage is where they are locked in a room alone – this is because of Hyuna, to prevent the unnecessary death of others. The final stage takes a maximum of a week to kill them – whether their gift tears them apart or they kill themselves.

Alice learnt all of this – this was the one secret she is never allowed to share with a patient, but this is what she was trained for.

“Jongin,” she tries to break his grip, his eyes dark and leering down at her, his gaze making her feel naked – she suddenly hates the tight nurse’s uniform when she hears the type of thoughts that cross his mind. A dangerous smirk appears on his lips as he leans in closer, licking his plump lips and suddenly, there is no space between them. “Please, Jongin, you are hurting me.” This isn’t exactly true, the grip he has is tight but the pressure isn’t enough to bruise the skin but the close proximity and the sudden display of dominance does make Alice uncomfortable; hoping that expressing pain instead of her displeasure at his closeness will appeal to his better nature, she goes with the lie of him hurting her.

There is a sudden change in his features; the smirk slowly disappears, his pupils retracting and the chocolate brown becoming more noticeable, and before she can say another word, Jongin is pushing himself away; backing against the wall at the opposite end of the room – as far as he can get from her.

“Why didn’t you just force me away?” Jongin’s voice is void of its previous aggression but the tone is tinged with something else – annoyance. Jongin hates that he’s hurt her, he may not like Alice but he doesn’t want to see her get hurt because of him either.

“I shouldn’t have don’t it earlier, I’m sorry.” Alice raises her hands, slowly making her way towards Jongin but he keeps a distance; moving towards his bed as if it’s some sort of ‘off bounds’ area in the small room. She knows her apology is nothing more than an effect, pretty shading on a situation that could turn to shit if she doesn’t show some emotion. Though she doesn’t believe the apology, hoping Jongin does, she does feel the smallest amount of remorse for what she is capable of doing; controlling all materials, reading minds is both a blessing and a curse but if she is to get anywhere with Jongin, if she is to do her job and protect him from the inevitable until Kyungsoo and Yixing can work out a cure – or a preventative – then she needs to work on her greatest flaw – her patience. “I’ll be more patient from now on; we need to work together if we are going to get you better.”

“Even if we detest each other?” Jongin folds his arms, brow cocked, he’s trying to trap Alice into admitting the attraction she feels, even if it is a tiny amount but this backfires when she agrees.

“Yes, even if we detest each other.” Jongin’s face remains unmoved but she can hear the disappointment in his thoughts; he had caught her checking him out when she bathed him earlier, had felt her heart race at their close proximity and while Jongin shrugs his shoulders and lays upon the clean white sheets – Alice resists the urge to point out his cockiness.

To tell him that he isn’t all that he thinks he is.

His handsome features, sharp jaw, now-soft dark brown hair, toned muscles covered by sun-kissed skin and chocolate brown eyes have no effect on her whatsoever – or so she’ll keep telling herself.

“Are you going to stay there all night?” Alice is pulled from her inner argument about her ‘non-existent’ attraction to Kim Jongin and she looks over at the subject of her turmoil stretched out on his bed – eyes closed and arms tucked behind his head.

“No, when you are ready for sleep, I go to my room for the night.” He nods ever so slightly and Alice can hear his next question in his mind before he voices it.

 _Don’t you want to hear what I dream about or see them, however your gift works._  A sexy white nurse’s outfit begins to form in his mind’s eye and Alice scoffs, earning a twitch of the lips from Jongin. “Good night, Alice.” He pulls the blankets over him before rolling over and giving Alice his back.

The audacity of this infuriating male! Alice tries to calmly leave the room but fails when she slams the door shut behind her with her mind, locking Jongin inside and while she storms away, Jongin chuckles to himself.

She’s going to be so much fun to mess with, to test her boundaries and find out what makes her tick. Alice hasn’t provided any information about herself, the institute to which he is confined – Jongin received a near novel but she still hasn’t given a morsel of personal information and he falls asleep determined to find out something tomorrow.

Before she reaches her shared room, she hears the constant buzzing of Yixing’s mind. She often compares it to a swarming of bees when there is no pattern to his thought process, a thousand thoughts overlapping and some that will be louder than others before fading into the mess.

“Yixing,” she knocks, interrupting the buzzing and instead hearing a light  _come in_  echo in his mind.

“How was our patient after his check up? Did he enjoy the food? How did he look after cleaning up? He looks like a fine young man under it all, such a shame he’s living the way he is now.” Alice holds her hand up to silence the onslaught of questions; his mind is bad enough, so she doesn’t need to hear it from his mouth too.

“Yixing, you forget there a mere few years between the two of you but this is about his corruption, Jongin’s showed signs of aggression earlier but they were more… of the dominating sense,” she thinks back to the subtle signs his body showed – they were taught to pick up on quick snaps in moods but  _that_  wasn’t like what they usually saw.

“You mean sexually?” Alice cocks her head side to side in a slow movement, Yixing leans forward on, elbows perched on the hardwood with hands together, resting his thumb on his chin and index fingers against his nose – processing this new information. “There is guaranteed to be some symptoms we haven’t seen before, this may be one of them or else he has an interest in you.” He chuckles softly when Alice pulls a face. “Did he try to force anything?”

“No, of course not.” Alice thinks of how his eyes flitted to her lips as he leaned closer; quickly squashing the thought before it showed on her face.

“We may need to accommodate for this,” Alice opens her mouth to argue but Yixing waves a hand in front of him, shaking his head as if to assure her worries. “I’m not suggesting anything, I’m merely pointing out that if his aggression is more sexual, it’s easier to deter than actual anger.” She doesn’t think so, realistically yes, dealing with a horny male is easier than dealing with one fuelled with rage but Alice would rather the latter than the former if she’s being honest. “There are rules, my dear but you are his – in a sense, you are with him more than anyone else will ever be in his foreseeable future and he is your charge, it is your job to make sure he doesn’t progress further. If things happen between a man and a woman than who are we to argue; things like that are only human nature and natural to occur.” Alice crosses her arms over her chest, puffing out her cheeks and giving Yixing a glare that he’s used to when telling Alice things she may know – but doesn’t like.

“There is  _no way in hell_  I would let him lay a finger on me  _or_  touch him. He can do that him-fucken-self.” Alice storms away, Yixing trying not to let her hear him chuckle but she  _hears him_.

She slams the door to the shared dorm room, three beds placed in the large room with different decorations surrounding each little habitat.

Oh Sehun, a year younger than Alice and the gift to manipulate the air around him is levitating on his bed. He’s reading a book and the light windswept look his hair has makes him seem gentle, calm but the moment Alice closes the door behind her; he proves he’s anything but.

“How’s your new pet?” That’s what he likes to call the patients they’ve been assigned because to Sehun, they take care of them more than an owner cares for their animal. “He seems like a feisty one, did you have to muzzle him today?” He raises an eyebrow when Alice throws him a look to inform him to stop. “You did, didn’t you? Ha, you’ve got the next one to go  _bye-bye_.”

“Shut it, Oh.” Park Chanyeol throws the lighter he was playing with in the direction of the younger male – missing him by a hair breadth.

Alice hears his distress, the mourning over the loss of his sister. Regardless of her banishment from his family, Chanyeol always cared for her. He took her death hard and he was nearly given a collar to control his own powers but thanks to Alice and Yixing, he managed to regain control.

It caused a form of mutual respect to form between the two.

“You saw how he was yesterday, basically frothing at the mouth. Rabid dog on the streets…” Without warning, Sehun falls stiff on his bed, eyes frantic and mouth clamped shut while Alice raises a closed fist and walks towards his bed.

“If you value your tongue, I suggest you stop. He’s a pain in my ass, yes, but if any one of us had to live the life he had to – we’d be the same. You didn’t read his file, you didn’t hear the fear in his mind while he slept so that means you have no right to judge how he is after  _one day_  here.” A hand on her shoulder causes her to release her hand which allows Sehun to move again.

Chanyeol is one of the few who can quell her own anger, even with being in control of fire, an element that burns brighter the angrier the person is; Chanyeol has always managed to keep hers in check. The relationship is strange, the three of them share various histories, different backgrounds and personalities but when the day ends – they interact like the dysfunctional siblings they have come to be.

Chanyeol being the oldest out of the three is the peacekeeper, Alice fell into the responsible role despite being quick to react she has the better judgement in many situations and Sehun is the annoying little brother that despite being sharp with his words, has a heart of gold that shines through on darker days.

“Do you feel sorry for him?” Alice gathers her nightwear, refusing to answer him. “Is it because like you, he’s got a rare gift, he’s potentially powerful  _and_  the last of his house?” She freezes at the door, looking in his direction with a shocked expression; those details may have been in Jongin’s file but they are definitely not in hers – she made sure of it. Sehun shrugs nonchalantly, as if what he said isn’t some form of secret she keeps from the world. “I heard Director Do tell Yixing when taking my pet to get food yesterday, before  _yours_  arrived.”

Sehun is obviously pleased about learning something Alice likes to keep hidden, being the last of one’s house isn’t proud information and it causes many to be cast out and given new names and terrible lives for things that weren’t their fault.

Everyone has secrets, some darker than others and the ones who have those type of secrets like to keep them close to their breast. Alice tries to ignore Sehun’s words as she showers, face turned against the stream while her mind runs a million miles per second.

Jongin may be considered a monster in the eyes of the law; a man cast out and branded a  _death bringer_ because of his gift teleporting him to safety but in the eyes of the law – Alice is considered a freak.

Why did they pair her with Jongin? Knowing her past, why did they choose her to take on the responsibility of a corrupted instead of sending her to the local hospital to deal with the homeless that need actual medical attention.

Why was her being the last of her house so important?


	5. Chapter Four

The alarm awakens the three bodies in the room and Alice groans loudly, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she sits up and stretches, enjoying how her shoulders crack. She can hear Sehun’s loud moaning in his head, the youngest always complaining about the early rises and not getting to sleep in despite them never having a sleep in since being assigned a patient. Chanyeol remains quiet, thinking about what he needs to do with his charge today and whether they should spend time outside. Alice rolls out of the comfort of her bed and heads for the bathroom to get ready, not looking forward to spending time with Jongin in Astra – or the small confines of the car, alone.

Taking him to Astra is a necessity; allowing patients to grab things to personalise their rooms, new clothes and other things gives them a sense of home and it’s her job to be stuck to his side for the entire day until he’s retired to his room by the end of it – even then, she may have to spend nights watching over him.

Alice walks briskly, separating from the other two nurses, who are heading towards their own patients, before turning down the hallway leading to Jongin’s room. Outside of his door, she can sense the dream before it slams through into her mind’s eye. The fire licking at his skin while he tries to teleport away, screaming for help but no-one pays attention to the homeless with the bright green light on his collar – allowing him to be burned alive; she can see the collar tight around his neck, choking him as he tries to teleport away but it prevents him from accessing his gift and he just continues to scream. Alice forces the image from her mind, pushing through his door and running to his side – her heart pounding along with his. Jongin’s arrogantly beautiful face is twisted in pain as he writhes in his bed, whimpering, pleading to whatever God there is in this sad world to stop the pain; sweat trickles down his temple into his damp, brown locks and even though she can no longer see it, Alice can  _hear_  his screams.

“Jongin,” she reaches for him, hand shaking, to wake him from his nightmare. “Jongin, you need to wake up.” Before her hand touches his shoulder, his hand shoots up and wraps around her throat, tight and causing her to choke.

Dark eyes stare up at her as hers bulge in shock, when she probes his mind, it’s blank and filled with darkness until she squeaks out his name, hand tapping on his forearm for him to let go; she sees a shimmer, recognition that something isn’t right but the hand squeezes instead of letting go and Alice resorts to her own gifts. Jongin freezes, his hands trapped by his side as she forces him flat on the bed; she’s regaining her breathe, hand clutching her throat as she doubles over next to him while Jongin’s mind awakens from the haze of his nightmare.

“What the fuck,” he struggles to no avail, unable to move his head, Jongin strains his eyes to find Alice next to him. “Do you call this a morning call or are you some sick freak that enjoys her prey helpless?” He spits; he’s about to continue his abuse when his words die in his throat. Alice stands next to him, breathe slowly returning to normal as she allows him to look at her completely, she lowers her hand and reveals the damage he done. “Who the fuck-no,” he shakes his head, not wanting to believe he would touch anyone in such a way.

He hates the world, cursing it daily but other than those who picked fights with him, Jongin has never laid his hands on anyone – especially a female.

“It’s okay,” she slowly pulls back her hold over him, making sure he isn’t going to lunge at her if he’s free from her control. “You were having a bad dream and your body reflexed to save itself from an intruder – it’s natural.” Yixing would be proud of her; part of her wants to chide him, make him feel like shit for touching her like that but after seeing his nightmare, she cannot bring herself to butt heads with him right now.

It’s too early for that.

“Did you see?” Jongin sounds a little worried, scared even, because the dreams he has are constant reminders of the guilt he feels for being the only one who survived, the guilt placed on him through the two years they kicked, tortured and whipped him repeatedly while stripping his life away. Alice shakes her head a little, her ponytail gently swaying to each side and Jongin scoffs, “fucken liar.” Completely free to move again, Jongin sits up before standing in front of Alice, she avoids his gaze as he towers over her and he just mumbles his apologies before going to freshen up.

“I’m not scared of you,” Jongin blinks and even though his back is turned, Alice raises a hand, gingerly touching the slight bruises he created. “This is part of the job, injuries are going to happen because of your corruption and if they do, they are never your fault.” Jongin shakes his head, walking towards the bathroom, about to slam the door when she speaks again to warn him. “Though, if you ever lay your hands on me like that again, I’ll walk you off the roof of the building.”

When ready for his outing, something Jongin is dreading, he walks silently beside Alice; he watches her side profile, wondering what she’s thinking and detailing the way her face is completely neutral. He wonders how she can’t even glance at him, he knows he’s attractive due to passing glances and comments by women on the streets and even roughed up, Jongin looked better than those he fought with but Alice pays him no mind. He smirks when she cringes at the thoughts he has about her, thinking loudly about how great her ass would look if her skirt was a little shorter, easier to access the soft flesh or how her neck would be irresistible if her hair was in a bun – he wonders how hard she’d like to be bitten; every time he thinks something along these lines, her perfect little façade of professionalism cracks a little while Alice tries her best not to snap.

When they stop in front of Yixing’s door, Alice wears a victorious grin on her face when Jongin’s annoying, sexual internal dialogue about his encounters with women on the streets turns to worry when he realises he’s meant to have a blood test before they leave – and another in a few days.

Alice hears Yixing’s silent command to enter and she opens the door without touching it, Yixing looks up from his notes to smile at them before dropping the smile and rushing to her side. “Alice, what happened?” His hands are delicately touching the bruises and Alice can hear Jongin groaning with guilt, “tell me, how did this happen?” Yixing looks briefly at a still, quiet Jongin.  _“I swear if he laid his hands on you, I’ll have him killed.”_

Alice grabs Yixing’s wrists, bringing his attention back to her. “It was an accident; Jongin was having a nightmare, his mind screaming for help and his body slick with sweat so I did my job to help him but his body reacted unexpectedly.” She can feel Yixing’s powers tingling at his fingertips as she lets his hands touch the bruises. “He’s not used to being in a safe environment, Dr Zhang. He didn’t do it for any other reason but self-defence.”

“Safe environment?” Jongin pipes up, pointing at the barred windows, “this place is designed to keep me locked in, I haven’t seen anything but blinding, shitty white and,” he waves a hand between Alice and Yixing, “having to watch you two act like some fucked-up couple who can’t decide whether they are at work or at home. I’ve been here two days, I don’t even  _know_  you and yet I’m expected to trust you and feel  _safe_  around you? Fuck off.” His deep brown glare is met with Alice’s deep blue and even though he can’t read her thoughts, her face says it all.

She cannot stand him, she puts up with him because her job is to do so and every time he opens his mouth – it pisses her off.

 _“Good,”_  his nose flares as he tries to calm himself down, “ _because your avoidance of answering one personal fucken question is pissing me off.”_

“You are quite the surprising pair,” Yixing claps his hands together, grinning as they look away from each other to look at him in confusion. “I think it’ll be interesting to see whether you two can put your animosity aside for the sake of our strikingly handsome patient’s wellbeing.” Alice groans, Yixing is determined to keep Jongin from progressing further in his corruption and is becoming desperate in his attempt, that he’s trying to make Jongin look physically appealing.

 _Because it’s the only way he can be appealing_. Alice fumes as she indicates for Jongin to sit on the bed so they can begin.

With all the equipment on the table, Alice roughly grabs Jongin’s arms and hisses at him when he tries to prevent her from rolling up his sleeves; his skin is warm to the touch and Alice is lucky no-one can read her thoughts because slightly touching his caramel skin reminds her of bathing him, the way his muscles rippled with every movement and a slight blush paints her cheeks which she tries to ignore when she ties the tourniquet around his bicep and swipes an alcohol swab along the vein to sterilise the area.

 _“Blushing?”_ Two voices with different tones trickle in, one feeling smug about the effect he has on her and the other genuinely surprised that Jongin  _has_  this effect on her. Jongin’s smugness quickly turns to nervous babble when Yixing exposes the needle, it’s quick and annoying and even though she  _really_  wants to make him suffer, Jongin’s nerves can make him unpredictable so she opts for trying to calm him down.

“Jongin, do you want me to control you so you don’t do anything rash?” His upper lip curls as his dark eyes glare at her, cold enough to freeze the sun and she can hear the reply before he says anything.

“Don’t you fucken dare.” She wants to,  _oh boy_  does she want to do it just to piss him off but knowing that her job is to do the opposite, Alice exhales sharply through the nose before nodding.

“Well,” she holds his arms straight and Yixing inserts the needle, “you need to calm down. See, it doesn’t hurt and for being such a good patient, I’ll take you anywhere you want to eat when we get to Astra – the director pays for it all.” A shadow of a smile plays on his lips before he reminds himself of who he’s with.

Giving her a cold stare, Jongin nods. “Sounds good, anything to make that weirdo pay but  _don’t_  talk to me like I’m a child again.”

Placing a cotton swab over the puncture wound to stop the bleeding, Alice gives him a condescending smile. “Then maybe you shouldn’t act like one.”

A chuckle from behind her makes her drop Jongin’s arm and turn to Yixing. “You are always a surprise, my dear Alice.” She crinkles her brow which prompts him to continue as he places the vials safely away.  “Chanyeol and Jongdae were in here earlier, he told me that you managed to _not_ break Sehun’s nose again last night.” Jongin snorts as he lowers his sleeve but Alice pays him no mind, ignoring his presence altogether.

She shrugs, “he seems to know certain details about my past that he doesn’t need to know or ever speak of and if he wishes to keep that nose of his straight – he’ll keep his mouth shut.” She can hear Yixing internalising about how Sehun would have heard any details about her – only him and Kyungsoo know her entire profile.

Alice has always been interested in her profile, the entirety of it, what Yixing knows and all the nitty gritty but every time she encroaches the subject, he finds some way to avoid answering her questions and promises her that they will talk about it another time.

Like how she currently is with Jongin.

They drive for a short while in silence, Alice concentrating on the road while Jongin broods while staring out the window. He realises Alice doesn’t like anyone knowing about her past but what could be so terrible about it that she would attack a fellow nurse that he found out she  _shares a room with_.

 _Are they an item_? Jongin turns his head in Alice’s direction when he hears her choke out a laugh. “Stay the fuck out of my head.” He snarls, twisting his body away from her as much as he can in the front seat of the car.

“I can’t help it,” she mumbles sadly and Jongin wonders why she’s not yelling at him or snapping like she has since they met. “You are my charge, we will be spending the rest of your time in Astra Asylum together and I  _have_  to tune my mind with yours.” She thinks about how she can hear Yixing’s thoughts anywhere in the Asylum if she concentrates hard enough on him – she’s meant to do the same with Jongin, especially if his corruption progresses and she needs to be with him at any time of the night.

“Will you be sharing my bed too?” An image of her covered by the white blankets of his bed flashes in their minds and Alice death grips the steering wheel. Jongin can feel her power spreading through his body and he’s quick to change the subject. “You said I was allowed to ask some questions last night but that didn’t happen.”

“And you think I’m going to let you ask them now? After that?” She speaks through gritted teeth and Jongin firmly nods, his brown locks falling in his eyes and giving him a softer look.

If it wasn’t for the hardened expression he wears, one of hatred and anger that sets itself permanently on his face like a mask to hide the pain he’s suffered through the years, Alice reckons he would look quite beautiful – but she doesn’t like to focus on his face so she can keep reminding herself that Kim Jongin isn’t anything but a pain in her ass.

“You can probe my mind whenever you want, you can control my body and I bet,” Jongin points to the steering wheel, “you don’t even need to use your hands to drive. How am I meant to put my life in your hands when you don’t tell me anything? I need to trust you.”

“Your trust issues have nothing to do with me, we are together in this whether you want me or not.” She deadpans. He can’t have another nurse even if they wanted to, nurses and patients are paired for specific reasons; personalities, gifts and backgrounds are all taken into regard when pairing a nurse with a patient.

Sehun’s patient, Baekhyun, is carefree and is very little work; Sehun and Baekhyun’s gifts thrive outdoors and that’s where they spend most of their time but Baekhyun is an easy task for Sehun who can be quick to react to the smallest situation. Chanyeol’s patient, Jongdae, controls thunder and could potentially create a fire if his collar somehow malfunctioned – Chanyeol can control fire; they were also paired because Hyuna killed Jongdae’s first nurse and he suffered third degree burns to most of his body during the fire, Chanyeol’s loss of his sister and Jongdae’s loss of the closest person he could call a friend allowed them to bond shortly after being paired. Jongin was given to Alice for reasons she knows, and for reason she is sure they won’t share with her willingly; his teleportation can take him anywhere, if he was to escape, Alice is the only one who can stop him from leaving without shooting him – because wouldn’t that be a waste of such a gift.

Alice is determined to find out the other reasons, why she was given a male patient rather than a female and why Yixing is willing to break the biggest rule in the nurse’s code to keep Jongin from destroying himself.

Jongin taps her shoulder, startling her. “I asked you a question.”  Alice sighs, knowing that Jongin is a dog with a bone and she should just let him have what he wants or else he’ll spend the rest of day being…himself; sending her sexual images of them together until she snaps. “What is your house? I’ve never met anyone with your powers, not even one of them and I met at least one person from every house in the  _gifted_  clans at some point.”

“I’m from the  _amino clan,_ my family lived outside of Astra because our powers were feared and there was no real use for us like everyone else – we were outcasts and only ever came to Astra when necessary.” She smiles sadly at the memory of her mother bringing her back a little puppy who quickly became her friend.

“Where are they now?” Jongin can sense the answer, the way Alice swallows and how her lips droop at the corners confirms what he suspected – strangely, his heart tugs a little at knowing she’s the last of her house too. He knows how lonely that can feel. “I’m sorry.” He mutters under his breath, not wanting her to hear him but also wanting her to know he’s not as much of an asshole as he can’t help to be.

“I know,” she clears her throat and shakes her head to evaporate the almost tender moment. “You have two more questions.”

Jongin sits up straight and asks the question that he’s been curious about since they were in Yixing’s office earlier. “Are you and Yixing-”

“No,” she interrupts his question quickly, “no, there is nothing romantic between me and Yixing.” The confusion in Jongin’s thoughts is to be expected and Alice sighs, lifting one hand off the wheel to massage her temple. “When I lost my family, I became quite sick: fevers, vomiting and deliria caused me to become hospitalised in the same medical centre that Yixing and his father worked. Yixing was in his teens, training to be a doctor like the rest of his family and he was by my side, learning how to save my life.” A sign flashes pass that indicates they are nearing Astra. “They thought I was going to die, I was unresponsive and I could hear it in their thoughts when I was barely conscious. ‘ _She’s not going to make it.’ ‘It’s a pity she has to die so young.’_  Yixing stayed with me until one day, I woke up; the weirdest thing that happened after waking up was that I had two gifts and large gaps in my memory. Telepathy was something that came from my father’s side but I don’t ever remember having it and telekinesis? As far as I knew, people only ever got one and those who weren’t born able to use their gifts – don’t survive.”

Jongin has heard of this, well, not completely this but a similar story from the  _terra_  clan. An illegitimate child was born and displayed no gifts until he turned ten; he died nearly instantly, the sudden onset of his gift was too much for him to handle and it killed him.

“Did you ever find anything out about the gaps in your memory?” Jongin presses for more information, genuinely curious about something outside of the world he knew because it took him away from his own problems. Alice shakes her head and Jongin’s hope to know more is dashed, sending him into a mood again.

She notices this, hearing the disappointment that she constantly feels. “I will find out,” Jongin looks up to see her staring straight ahead with a determined look and for the first time since they got into the car, Alice doesn’t look annoyed by his presence. “Yixing knows everything about it and one day, he will tell me.”

Jongin nods, despite their disagreement and mutual dislike for each other, he doesn’t doubt that she’ll find some way to get the truth. “I hope you find what you’re looking for,” Alice scoffs at his attempt to be civil, wondering where it’s coming from as his mind is too busy swirling with his final question. When Jongin sees that Astra is growing closer, he defaults; he wants to keep this civil connection they started to form but being reminded of the injustice he’s faced on these very streets – he can’t help but go back to his old ways.

Jongin smirks, his eyes shifting to a more devious look and he leans against the door, body facing Alice as he takes in her civilian attire while biting his bottom lip. “When was the last time you had a good fuck?” Alice slams on the breaks, nearly causing the car behind them to rear end them; she throws Jongin a disgusted look and clenches her fist – causing him to turn to face the front, completely immobilised.

“You are a seriously twisted prick, I thought there was something about you I’d be able to like but you’ve proven me wrong.” She growls, accelerating towards a shopping mall to get this trip over and done with.

 _“It’s a harmless question, baby.”_ Jongin continues to rile her up; she can’t lock him in his room out here – out here, Jongin can have his fun and Alice will either snap, giving Jongin a chance to escape, or she will kill him.

Either way, he’s going to have fun while they are here.

Alice doesn’t let him free even when they reach the shopping mall and the longer she remains in control of his body, the more provocative and explicit his thoughts become. Jongin shows her the type of woman he’s shared beds with, how they would come find him when their husbands weren’t doing the job; that despite the dirt and blood caked onto his skin – they  _loved_  how well he could fuck.

 _“I bet you’ve never felt a cock against those tight little walls,”_ Jongin can’t smile, thanks to Alice, but she can  _hear_  the shit-eating grin he’d be wearing if she didn’t have complete control over him.  _“Two men in your room and you can’t even get one of them to pull that stick out of your ass and give you a good night.”_ She tries to remember the breathing techniques that Yixing taught her when she could feel the control slipping through her fingers.

It’s only ever happened twice, having lost complete control; Yixing warned her that it could happen because having two gifts made her twice as powerful but also it is harder to control, and did his best to find ways to prevent her from blanking out. He told her it must be why she cannot remember much about her past and the early days at the medical centre but this always made her feel strange inside whenever she thought deeply about it.

She can’t remember what she did those two times she lost complete control, only the aftermath but could that completely erase memories of a childhood that seemed happy?

 _“I think that set would look great on you,”_  Jongin’s imagery invades her thoughts; a blood red lingerie set complementing her lightly tanned skin while she dances seductively for Jongin’s sick mind.

Jongin knows he’s pushing her too much but he can’t help himself, once he started imaging her playing dress up in his clothes, he couldn’t stop himself. It was meaningless, empty and a quick way he could earn enough money to not die on the streets but he  _needed_  it and the more he thinks about her, the needier he becomes.

They can’t stand each other but he knows that she’s affected by his physique; he’s definitely affected by hers and would happily gag her if it meant he got to feel her.

Alice grabs several items of clothing, visibly struggling to remain in control while Jongin feels her control ebbing through his muscles; her blonde hair falls into her face as she crouches to compare shoes to his feet to make sure they fit but Jongin can see the tension she’s holding in her shoulders – so he ups the ante.

When the image of Alice’s face contorted in pleasure invades her mind, Alice glares up at Jongin and he can feel the tightness around his throat as if it’s closing itself. Her pupils are blown wide and her upper lip curls, twitching as she silently strangles Jongin with her mind; until a child pulls her attention away from Jongin. She can see herself, looking deadly and murderous while Jongin’s completely still and unable to breath. Grabbing the clothing and Jongin’s wrist, she drags him towards the dressing room, pushing him inside before entering herself and locking the door behind her.

Her breathing is erratic, trying to calm herself before she loses control again but because Jongin has control over his limbs again, he doesn’t give her any time to recover. He pushes her against the mirror, almond shaped eyes looking at her soft, pink lips before he dives in; his hands press her shoulders against the cool surface, a knee between her legs while his body presses against hers. Jongin expects her to push him away but mentally, Alice cannot deal; she despises Jongin, he frustrates her, irritates her and pushes her further than he should but in this moment,  _she doesn’t care._

Her mind is weak as she kisses him back, biting his bottom lip and causing him to growl lowly at the roughness; Jongin presses his hips against her, grinding his growing erection against her and the slightest bit of self-control reminds her that this is  _wrong_.

“Get off me,” she breaks the kiss and forces Jongin away, watching him unashamedly try to get back against her. “Hurry up and try those on so we can leave,” she points at the clothes tossed on the floor, “I need to shower after having you touch me.” She hurries out of the stall, keeping the door closed and slamming the back of her head against it – chastising herself for allowing that to happen.

 _“I guess that’ll have to keep me going, nights are lonely in that room and this will tide me over for now.”_ She groans, wishing that she could erase her memories now like she did back then.

Kim Jongin will be the death of her.

The drive back to Astra Asylum is faster and silent, Alice refusing to bite back to Jongin’s teasing while she basically presses the accelerator against the floor to get them back in record time. Jongin’s new things are piled in the back and Alice even has a few things she got for herself with her wages but she cannot think about the excitement from buying oneself something new because all Jongin seems to be thinking about is the lingerie he saw and how good it would have been if Alice was wearing it while they made out in the dressing room stall.

Her stomach growls and she glares at Jongin because of him and his bullshit antics at the mall, they never went to get anything to eat and she is starving. She opens her mouth to speak, quickly glancing darkly at him to show him that she’s pissed when Jongin suddenly reaches for the wheel. “Watch out!” He yells, yanking to wheel to the left and causing the car to spin out of control.

It happened so fast, the deer came out of nowhere and Alice didn’t have any time to react because Jongin had already tried to avoid it. The car spins in slow motion, Alice trying her best to right them before they crash into a tree but as much as she tries – the car still collides with the strong trunk of the tree and her side crumples, trapping her in her seat and breaking her leg.

Alice’s screams prevent Jongin from passing out, he feels tingling in his fingertips before he feels it throughout his entire body. Alice’s gift is out of control, her pain causing her to lose control and Jongin manages to push through it, the hold isn’t strong enough to stop him from moving but it is making it harder for him.

“Alice,” Jongin grunts, managing to unbuckle their seatbelts and lean over to her side, “Alice, I need you to focus on freeing yourself.” She opens her eyes, tears making her blue irises shine like the ocean and Jongin can feel something inside tinge with pain at the sight. “Focus, Alice. Come on,” he tries to move her but instead causes more pain, “fuck, shit; Alice, you need to free yourself.” She shakes her head, muttering about how she’ll die of blood loss before they even exit the car. The metal has pierced her leg and if removed, it’s going to bleed faster; Jongin swears profusely as he tries to keep his own pain at bay.

A sound of the collar unlocking catches him by surprise, the rush of power surging through him that he hasn’t felt in years nearly overwhelming his senses, and Alice closes her eyes, gritting her teeth as she begins to lose feeling in her toes and she can feel the hot wet stream of blood slowly trickling from the wound. Jongin’s thoughts overwhelm her, unable to shove them away, they flood in as he tries to figure out how to get her out of her – not save himself, not teleport far away from the wreck but to save her.

Both Jongin and Alice are surprised by this.

“Alice,” Jongin’s voice, filled with a softness she’s hasn’t heard from him before, calls to her in her dark, fuzzy mist. “I need you to give one last push, okay?” Jongin can barely hear her reply but when he can hear the metal crunching, moving away from her body; Jongin doesn’t waste a second.

Wrapping his arms around her, Jongin focuses on the Asylum, specifically Yixing’s office. He can feel the greatly missed energy flowing through him and his body vibrates; flashes of the night his family died string in, taunting him of his failure and trying to get him to lose focus but that was years ago – he’s stronger now, older and not the same scared boy who saved himself.

Yixing jumps when a loud crack explodes into his room and Jongin collapses on his floor, his body protectively wrapped around a bleeding Alice. He wastes no time, rushing to their side and getting to work on her, healing her as fast as his power allows; he knew something was wrong, he could sense it but the feeling was too small for him to figure out what it was.

“Alice,” without losing concentration, Yixing looks down at Jongin, his collar hanging loosely around his neck as his eyes flutter closed from shock and exhaustion, “save Alice.”


	6. Chapter Five

“You unlocked his collar?!” Sehun grits his teeth, a breeze ruffling the nurse’s hair as he tries to steady his breathing. “Alice, how can you be so reckless? You’re meant to be the smart one here.” Alice reaches for the crutches by her bed, scowling at the younger as she hobbles to stand in front of him.

Chanyeol stands at the ready, Alice’s gifts have been slightly out of control for the past week; she’s been throwing things out of frustration because Yixing said the damage was so severe that she shouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for Jongin – but it means that even with his help, it’ll take a while to heal. “I had no  _choice_ ,” the venom in her tone matching the disapproval on Sehun’s face, “I thought I was going to die; one of us had to get out.”

“And what if he left you there to die? Did you even  _think_  that he would have saved himself before you? You mean nothing to him!” Alice adjusts her positioning, grimacing when she puts too much weight on her injured leg.

“He wasn’t, it never even crossed his mind,” Sehun scoffs, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation. “You had no idea what he was thinking, he didn’t even think of running; Jongin immediately tried to save me.”

“Blinded by his looks,” Sehun deals a low blow and Alice growls, her power rushing through Sehun’s body and slamming him against the wall while she slowly makes her way to him.

“Say it again,” their noses are touching, her blue eyes narrowing dangerously, “I fucken dare you.”

“He let his family die, you are so blinded by his damn looks that you aren’t using your head; too busy thinki-” A loud crack echoes through the room and the damage is done before Chanyeol could run to Alice’s side – because she made sure he couldn’t. Sehun drops to the floor, clutching his face as blood trickles from his nose and Alice stares coldly down at him.

“I can’t fucken walk properly, I could have  _died_  if it wasn’t for him; you know  _nothing_  about him so pull your head out of your ass and leave me alone about it before I  _literally_  shove it up there.” She turns around, making her way out of the room before turning to Chanyeol. “I’ll be staying in Jongin’s room until that little shit apologises.” Chanyeol nods, unable to stop her because it’s better to let Alice and Sehun calm down separately rather than keeping them together.

They get over themselves eventually.

“Let’s get you to Yixing,” Chanyeol helps Sehun stand, the younger male lifting his head back to try and stop the bleeding. “You know, you should just let it go; she’s alive, Jongin’s collar has been reconnected and we should be thankful that he got her to Yixing before she bled out.”

“I know but unlocking his collar? Yeol, if he had left her…” Sehun’s anger dissipates as he thinks about Alice, alone and dying while Jongin’s form disappears from beside her. “She should have left him to die.”

“Are you angry that she unlocked his collar or are you not expressing how you really feel again?” They walk in silence for a while; Sehun has this bad habit of riling Alice up when he’s worried or scared – rather than telling them how he feels, he uses anger or sarcasm to avoid dealing with his emotions and even at a mature age, Sehun still can act like a child. “If you were worried she was going to die, you should have just told her – instead of starting a fight with her the moment she walked into the room after a week.” They knock on Yixing’s door before entering; Yixing can sense Sehun’s injury before it’s shown and he shakes his head.

Standing up, he walks over to the two nurses and places his hands on either side of Sehun’s face before letting his gift heal the broken nose. “Sehun, sometimes I wonder if you enjoy her breaking your nose by the way you push her buttons.”

“At least, she didn’t try to kill me.” Sehun wipes the blood from his face and Yixing frowns, remembering the incident years ago.

“If you keep it up,” Chanyeol sighs, slapping Sehun around the head, “she might.”

The door flies open and Jongin quickly covers his lower half while preparing to throw something at whoever walks in; Alice has been in a hospital ward, recovering thanks to Dr Zhang but while she’s been away, her roommate and fellow nurse Sehun has been taking Jongin to see the good doctor and then putting Jongin back in his room – complaining he already has one pet to care for, he doesn’t want another.

When Alice swings in on her crutches, Jongin jumps out of the bed and rushes to her side, grabbing her arm and helping her towards the chair; she makes sure her eyes remain to the front, stopping in front of the chair and refusing to sit down despite Jongin’s hand trying to make her do so.

“Put on some pants,” his sheet moves from the bed to wrap around his waist and she groans at the image in his head. “Are you still thinking about that damn kiss? You haven’t changed.” She jumps around and sits down, dropping the crutches to the ground and lifting her leg onto the footrest.

The smirk on Jongin’s face begins to grow, it wasn’t just the kiss that he was thinking of – he was thinking about what could have happened if she just let it happen. “You’ve seen me naked,” he walks around the room, rummaging around the closet for something to wear, “you’ve even rubbed me down; why not just give me this much and do it again?” An image of them in Jongin’s shower, wet and pressed against one another flashes in her mind before a crutch is hurled towards him; his upper lip curls as he flinches out of the way but it stops before reaching him and when he looks up, Alice is clutching her leg with pain clear on her face.

He rushes to her side, dropping the clothes on his bed before kneeling in front of her. “You really should stop being such a pain in my ass,” her jaw is clenched as she tries to force the pain out of her mind; “it’ll make both of our lives easier.”

“But it’s fun,” his smirk isn’t as convincing as he can see how badly she wants to scream. He tortures and torments her with his thoughts because it’s the only thing he can find entertaining after the last several years; it’s psychotic but her reactions make it worth it. He can’t admit that ever since the accident, he’s been worried about her because it would alter their dynamic and Jongin prefers having her despise him rather than care – because then he doesn’t have to care for her either.

She can hear Yixing’s and Jongin’s concern mix together – Yixing feeling her pain while Jongin may be smirking on the outside but his thoughts betray his worry for her. “You have an appointment with Dr Zhang, your ribs are healing well and I think this will be your last healing session with him.” Alice tries not to look at the scars on his muscular, caramel toned torso but with Jongin standing in front of her – it’s the only place she can look.

Helping her stand, Jongin walks her towards the door before she brings her thrown crutch back into her reach; they move slowly, Jongin asking small questions about where she was and why things aren’t back to normal if Yixing is  _so good_  at his job. Alice reprimands him, reminding him that Yixing’s gift may heal wounds but large injuries like her leg, or his ribs, take time because they also drain Yixing.

“There are other patients for Yixing to see, Jongin. Sorry to break it to you but the world doesn’t revolve around you.” His grip on her bicep tightens slightly at her remark and she can hear the seething venom in his thoughts, the disgust he finds in her words when she knows that he thinks that the world is  _against_ him.

It happens quickly, this time Alice is able to sense the change in his demeanour as the corruption takes hold. Their bond is still far from strong but she can  _feel_  it; the painfully tight way he grips her arm, a primal growl vibrating from his chest and his thoughts flash rapidly through his mind before turning to darkness. Alice compares it to a pool of smog, dark and swirling, suffocating to be inside of and when his mind reaches for her – it’s almost choking her senses as well.

She’s pressed against the wall, her crutches dropped to the ground as he glares down at her; Jongin’s pupils are dilated and his nose flares, his eyes are locked on her bitten bottom lip as she tries to keep the pain from crippling her. “ _You_  scold me, get angry with  _me_  for saying things,  _thinking_  things that I supposedly shouldn’t but yet,” he leans closer, his warm breath fanning on her cheeks as she tries to keep strong, “you can’t keep that pretty little mouth of your own shut.”

Alice expects more pain, him to squeeze and bruise her but instead he kisses her, pulling her lip from between her teeth and in between his own. He wraps a strong arm around her to support her weight while pressing his bare torso against her. She mumbles, trying to talk sense into him but the more noise she makes, the harder he bites her lip until she can feel his pearly white teeth pierce her skin.

The taste of blood seeps into his mouth and his eyes flutter closed for a second, his teeth letting her lip go to kiss her harshly and his body shivers as he presses closer against her; he remembers how she interrupted him earlier, his orgasm so close before she barged in through his door and it seems to make him hungrier for release. Alice can sense the mixture in his mind, his corruption mixing with sexual desire like every other time and even without her gift, she can  _feel_  it pressing against her stomach through the white sheet wrapped around his waist.

Her mind is telling her to push him away, force him into submission so he won’t touch her but the pain is preventing her from concentrating enough; she needs to find a way to get rid of the pain, to stop the corruption from controlling Jongin so she tries to focus on him – even when part of her gags at the idea. His lips are soft, roughly pressed against hers but they still feel soft and pillowy; slowly, Alice parts her lips, allowing hers to mould into Jongin’s and his grip on her adjusts.

The pain dulls, ebbing away as Alice allows her mind to focus on the kiss; Jongin’s thoughts become clearer, she’s able to sift through the smog and find small, in-the-moment thoughts rather than the constant onslaught that constantly happens. “ _I need to make sure I don’t put any pressure on her leg but fuck, it would be so easy to slam her against this wall and teach her a lesson.”_ Alice’s eyes fly open and before Jongin knows it, he’s thrown against the opposite wall – causing a loud thud to echo down the hallway and alarming anyone nearby.

Jongin’s head lulls to the side while Alice collapses on the floor, crying out in pain and clutching her leg as she falls on it; Yixing feels her pain and rushes for her, he heard the bang but didn’t find it concerning until her pain shattered his thoughts. He finds them not far from his office with Sehun and Chanyeol running towards them but they all struggle to get near her or Jongin.

“Alice,” Yixing’s tone is soothing, trying to get her to reel in her power so he can get closer, “you need to breathe; we can’t get near you if you don’t control yourself.”

“It hurts so  _fucken_ much,” she grits her teeth, shaking her head. Chanyeol tries to get near the unconscious Jongin but her power is surrounding the both of them; she can hear them, their concerns that she’s losing control again and it frustrates her.

Stupid broken leg, stupid Jongin and his stupid corruption having to create this stupid mess.

Alice senses his stirring, his mind dazed as he lifts his head and looks around before hearing a  _fuck_  scream in his mind; he knows he did something, Jongin may enjoy pushing her limits but knowing he’s caused her pain isn’t something he likes in a stable state of mind. He can move, her power slowing his movements but not stopping him from crawling towards her.

“Alice, breathe.” Yixing tries again, watching Jongin slowly approach her. “I can make the pain go away if you let me near you.” He’s surprised that Jongin isn’t saying anything, that Alice isn’t forcing him away but he hopes that it’s because they’ve gotten past their mutual dislike and reached a more positive understanding.

 _“I didn’t mean to hurt you,”_  Jongin stops in front of her, looking ashamed for having to admit this but knowing he needs to put his pride aside to get her help. Sehun’s presence during the week, rather than Alice’s, made Jongin realise that she’s more understanding of him; Sehun spoke down to him, treated him like everyone else did in Astra – like a murderer. Alice never believed he did it and the only time she ever talks to him like shit is when he’s thinking something or doing something to piss her off; usually sexual but it’s more entertaining when he finds her reactions towards him so contradicting. Alice speaks like she can’t stand Jongin but her eyes wandering over his body says that she finds  _something_  about him attractive.  _“The corruption brings out the worse in me.”_

Alice scoffs, grimacing slightly but able to focus on something rather than pain thanks to Jongin’s thoughts. “I think it just makes you a bigger asshole than what you already are.” A grin spreads across Jongin’s reddened lips as he helps Alice up; Yixing rushes to her side with Sehun pushing past Jongin, making a point to barge into his shoulder before helping Yixing walk Alice towards his office.

“What did you do, Kai?” The name causes Jongin’s head to snap in Chanyeol’s direction; the taller male glares at him and even though his tone is scarily calm, Jongin can feel the warmth emitting from him. Jongin shrugs; bending down to pick up Alice’s crutches but a warm hand grabs his shoulder and roughly pushes him against the wall. “Did you put your hands on her?”

Jongin shoves him off, lips automatically curling into a smirk. “Why, are you jealous?” He laughs loudly when Chanyeol’s ears blush slightly, “does it piss you off knowing that a delicious piece of ass like her prefers a homeless, corrupted murderer as opposed to,” Jongin waves his hand at Chanyeol, “whatever you are? Can you blame her? I would definitely know how to put that fiery tongue of hers to good use.”

Jongin can feel the air grow hotter, Chanyeol’s eyes change to a bright orange as he pulls back for a punch but before he can strike Jongin, Sehun comes running down the hall and pulls him back.

“He’s not worth it,” Sehun looks over at Jongin, leaning against the wall in nothing but a sheet before shaking his head and pulling him in the direction of Yixing’s office. “Alice would throw a fit if you hit her pet – even if he deserves it.”

Jongin follows behind them, chuckling to himself at how easily it is to get under these nurses’ skins but also how they wouldn’t dare lay a finger on him because of Alice. Even though he shouldn’t find this fun – he does and while walking to Yixing’s office, he thinks of ways to be able to interact more with his two new playthings.

Alice grumbles, brows knitting together as the dream creeps in; his lungs gasping for air as he tugs on his sister’s arm, coughing as he tries to wake her up but only seeing smoke and fire close in from all sides. His panic wakes her, shaking her from her slumber and Alice notices Jongin tossing and turning, his groans echoing through the room.

She’s been sleeping in his room ever since her fight with Sehun and even after a few days, the stubborn little shit still hasn’t apologised despite his glances in her direction when they pass in the halls; he’ll greet her like nothing happened and even when she waits for him to say something – he shrugs and walks away, leaving her to sigh in exasperation.

Alice stands up, grimacing as she applies pressure to her leg, ignoring the sharp pain that comes with walking on it and rushes to Jongin’s side. “Jongin,” sleep lacing her tone as Alice yawns, lifting a hand to cover her mouth, “Jongin, you need to wake up.” Being careful about waking him, she keeps his hands locked down; her hand rests on his shoulder and Jongin’s brow evens out as he relaxes to her touch. “We really need to find some way to help with these nightmares,” she grumbles, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, “it’s not good for either of us.”

The nightmare blurs and Alice sees herself in the driver’s seat of the car, mouth open and about looking at Jongin; she can feel his hands jerk the steering wheel as he tries to avoid the deer. Her own recollection of the accident merges with Jongin’s and she shakes him more urgently to wake him because his guilt and fear tries to grip at her heart. His eyes flutter slightly, half-aware of her presence next to him.

Sensing no danger from him, Alice releases her hold on his upper appendages and sensing the bad dream dissipate into nothing, she sighs. This is the first night since they arrived back from Astra where Jongin has had a nightmare; he admitted that it’s the longest he’s been free from the clutches of his guilt. It’s tiresome, having to deal with his bad moods because of lack of sleep and mixed with his usual terrible, perverted self – it’s like constantly trying to reign in an overgrown child who knows how to get under your skin with constant sexual images.

She will never admit it but Jongin thinking about slamming her against the wall and fucking her brains out is better than hearing about other patients in later stages of their corruption and their obsession for skinning someone alive with maniacal laughter.

Alice turns to leave, preparing herself to stand up and limp back to her trusty makeshift bed when a hand grips her wrist and pulls her into a tight, warm embrace. Alice tries to struggle from the hold but a grumbling Jongin hushes her.

“You wake a man up, prod around in his mind and then try to leave? At least let him have  _some_  comfort.” His husky voice laced with sleep and he pulls her back against him over the blankets, her legs still dangling off the bed. “The bed is big enough for you,” he yawns, smacking his lips together as he buries his head into her back, “you don’t have to sleep on the chair, Alice.”

Jongin is being kind, in his half-asleep state, Kim Jongin has no ulterior motive other than making sure she’s comfortable and Alice lets out a soft chuckle before unlocking his arms from around her. “If you behaved like this all the time, you’d actually be likable.” A half-smile lifts his lips as he rolls onto his back, arm lifting above his head as he scratches his messy brown hair.

“And what fun would that be, baby.” He mumbles before yawning and letting sleep take hold once more. Alice rolls her eyes before groaning at the distance from the bed to the chair; should she take Jongin up on his offer? Scoffing at the fact she’s even entertaining the thought, she lifts a hand, focusing on the chair until it’s placed in front of her next to the bed.

The bed would be more comfortable but dealing with Jongin’s smug remarks all day is definitely  _not_ worth it.

Standing in front of Dr Kim Junmyeon’s office with a disgruntled Jongin fuming at this idea makes you wonder if you should turn around and go back downstairs because maybe, just maybe, dealing with Jongin’s nightmares will be better than the childish thoughts he’s thinking. Trying to flick up her skirt as he stands behind her, thinking about how great she looks from behind, randomly poking her in the ribs and then jumping back with a laugh when she jumps – it’s like dealing with a seven year old rather than a twenty-seven year old.

There’s a soft male voice that calls from behind the door and Alice opens it before pulling Jongin through. “I don’t need a fucken psychiatrist,” he tries to resist but her power is making his legs move at her command, “I’m not insane.”

“Jongin,” exasperated, Alice rubs her temple before sitting him on the leather couch, “you are in an  _asylum_ , you have nightmares because of your survivor’s guilt, you have violent episodes that you can’t recall and seriously, I’m pretty sure you need  _something_  to deter those delusional thoughts you constantly have about us even  _touching_  in that sense.” Jongin chuckles as he sends a very vivid image of what he’d like to do to her and in retaliation – Alice makes him slap himself.

Jongin goes to react, his lip curling when the soft clearing of a throat catches his attention. “Now, now, children; this is meant to be a safe place for our patient, not a place filled with negative emotions.” Alice bows, moving to stand next to the man with a soft smile and kind eyes.

“Sorry, Dr Kim,” she stands against the wall, leaning on her crutch, remaining silent and observing while Dr Kim brings Jongin’s attention to him.

“I’m Dr Kim Junmyeon, I’m one of the psychiatrists,” his soft features match his soft tone and he gives off a motherly, calming feel but Jongin feels tense, against the idea of having to share feelings with a stranger when he can’t even share them with Alice – someone he barely knows but knows better than this strange man. “After seeing me, you are to be assessed by Dr Kim Minseok to make sure you and your nurse are still in working order,” Jongin raises his eyebrows, glancing at a stoic Alice who gives nothing away. “We are to be kept in the know about everything; your corruption episodes, is your nurse doing their job properly and because your nurse is a female, a rare pairing in Astra Asylum, has there been any sexual encounters between you.”

“If she wasn’t such an uptight prude, there could be.” Jongin smirks but Junmyeon looks unimpressed with his response.

Looking briefly at Alice, Junmyeon’s hardened expression tells Jongin that he doesn’t care for his tactics. “There is to be no relations between a nurse and their patient – it’s forbidden.” He smiles again, face void of the previous disapproval. “Your defence mechanism is sexual innuendos and matched with your strikingly good looks, I’m sure our Alice has her hands full dealing with you.”

 _“You can always use those hands for something else, baby._ ” Jongin’s face remains impassive while he teases Alice, wondering how well she can remain composed.

Through the hour spent sitting on the sticky, leather couch, they learnt that Jongin’s episodes are more sexual than violent which Junmyeon states is an easier type to deal with; some patients have injured themselves, others will outwardly attack anyone near them but there are some who will be driven with the need to fornicate.

Jongin choked on a laugh when Junmyeon used this word to describe it.

Alice worries, even though Yixing is more willing to break this rule to help Jongin because his assumption is that Jongin’s only object of desire is Alice; Junmyeon is dead set against it and is offering  _other alternatives_  to help and prevent his corruption from taking over – alternatives Alice doesn’t approve of. Alice can hear the disgust in Jongin’s thoughts as he remains quiet and drowns out the doctor’s talk about safe sex with special  _aides_  they can have brought into the asylum for him.

“ _Prostitutes,”_ Jongin glances briefly at Alice, who’s staring at a spot on the wall as she tries to drown it all out – he can tell she doesn’t particularly like the idea either. “ _I’d rather have you throw me against a wall than stick my dick in something several men have fucked.”_  He can see the smirk on her lips, as if she’s teasing him of his standards in women. “ _I don’t try it with everyone, sweetheart. You should consider yourself lucky; you know any good lover enjoys a bit of cat and mouse to begin with.”_ It’s his turn to smirk when she pretends to gag.

In this strange new life that Jongin is forced to live, Alice is his anchor; she’s meant to be, they are to be together day and night until he finally loses the plot and kills himself in a padded cell but despite their animosity, Alice has become the one thing Jongin can focus on to make the day seem bearable. Whether it’s annoying her, watching how she brushes her hair out of her eyes and chews the pen when she’s taking notes on him or how since breaking her leg, there’s been this silent respect between them because Jongin saved her life – they share many similarities and Jongin finds that she’s more straightforward in this fucked up place than anyone else.

“Well,” Junmyeon claps his hands together and both Alice and Jongin jump out of their thoughts, “I’m pleased with what Alice has provided, your notes show that your corruption is still in its early stages and we shall look at seeing if any of our  _aides_  are to your liking to be on call for when you need them.” Alice walks towards Jongin, standing next to him before bowing to Junmyeon in thanks and Jongin just nods as they leave.

The silence in Jongin’s thoughts are frightening for Alice, normally he’s attacking her with constant immature commentary or obscene images but there is  _nothing_  as they walk towards Minseok’s office. Dr Kim Minseok, the doctor who he needs to visit once a month to make sure that his personal dealings with Alice is above board and that she is doing her job to the best of her abilities.

“You aren’t to lie,” Alice says quietly and continues when Jongin raises an eyebrow in confusion. “Dr Junmyeon is our specialist when dealing with corruptions, he will provide you with everything you need to keep the episodes at bay but he’s also the one you would talk to about any problems you are having mentally or emotionally that you cannot talk to me about.” Jongin nods, he knows this – Junmyeon spent half an hour talking about that. “Dr Minseok deals with personal relationships; do you get along with other patients, precautions that need to be taken if you don’t and also he’s the one who approves out-of-facility trips. He’s the Head of Personnel here, the one who pairs up patients with their nurses; if you are unhappy or if you feel like I’m not doing my job, he’s the one who will find a replacement.”

“Are you worried that I’m going to tell him all about how you use your gift to control me constantly?” Alice shakes her head.

“We’ve been paired for a little over two weeks now and we hate each other,” she sighs, remembering that Chanyeol and Jongdae were still in a better place than where she and Jongin are now.

“Don’t worry, Alice,” the use of her name causes her to look at Jongin in shock, “you’re a stubborn woman but I trust you more than these wackos.” Alice chuckles, shaking her head at the rare commodity they share in this moment.

Giving him a slight nudge, Alice winks before opening the door, “still doesn’t change the fact you’re a twisted pervert, Jongin.”


	7. Chapter Six

Something changes within their dynamic that allows the Asylum to have a quiet period; a month without explosive arguments, no corruption episodes and no more broken noses. Yixing hasn’t yet asked what caused the two to settle into a  _healthy_  routine but as he watches Alice scribble on a blank piece of paper while Jongin works out in the recreation room; he knows  _something_  has shifted between them.

Alice can hear his questions, her hand pausing as she turns to look at the smiling doctor and shaking her head in disgust with what he imagined – no, they haven’t crossed that line but something has definitely happened but will Alice be willing to tell him? She sighs, giving a quick look over at Jongin, who’s only thoughts are the amount of push-ups he’s done and how terrible the music is; Alice stands up, adjusting her white plaid skirt before walking over to the radio and changing the station. Yixing watches in awe as Jongin turns his head to the side, giving Alice a rare smile in thanks before continuing his work out.

“You think too much, Yixing.” Alice stands beside him, not looking at him while continuing to watch Jongin. She silently admires the way the muscles in his arms bulge, the veins popping to the surface as he pushes his limit again – she’s warned him about over-exertion but since Jongin’s ribs were completely healed, he’s been hard at it. “There is no physical change between Jongin and myself, he’s still a pervert and annoys the hell out of me and everyone around him.”

Yixing smiles knowingly, her tone isn’t as harsh as it once was when speaking his name. “But something has changed, I can see it.” She rotates her ankle, remembering how a few weeks ago she could barely put any pressure on it.

“We came to an understanding,” chewing the inside of her cheek, she watches as Jongin stands up to wipe the sweat from his brow and head for the treadmill, the white singlet he wears sticking to his toned muscles. “It happened after he first met with Minseok.”

_“I need to know more,” Jongin demands, pacing the room like a trapped animal while Alice waits for him to sit down, “if I’m meant to trust you and confide in you, then you need to give me something.” Alice sighs, rubbing her sore leg before Jongin rushes over to bring the footrest over to her. “I know we don’t see eye to eye but how are we going to when you put up walls?”_

_Alice scoffs, lifting her leg and raising an eyebrow at Jongin, who sits on his bed. “Ever since we met, you’ve been nothing more than a pain in my ass; you think the most revolting things and pick fights with everyone who looks at you funny. Do you think I care if you trust me or not?” Jongin’s upper lip curls as she glares at him before dropping her gaze and sighing. “I guess I owe you something since you saved my life.” Jongin’s thoughts immediately hit the gutter before she throws him a look of pure disgust and he shrugs nonchalantly. “What is something you really want to know?”_

_“How you ended up in this shit hole and your weird pseudo sibling relationship with the healing hands doctor? Is it true that you two have never fu-” Jongin’s lips are clamped shut with a warning glare from Alice; when her control over him is gone, he smirks. “Have you ever wanted to?”_

_“Not with him and definitely not with you, my sex life is not in question here and I’d prefer not to have to see yours in my mind,” images flash across her mind’s eye while Jongin chuckles, “otherwise I’ll leave.” The images vanish quickly and Jongin adjusts his position for the upcoming story she’s about to tell. “If you want to know how I came to have two sets of gifts then you’ll have to ask Yixing, I don’t know but I have a feeling he does; as for how I came to be here was because my entire clan were wiped out.”_

_“In Astra, they don’t like clans mingling especially those with gifts but sometimes, you can’t help who you fall in love with; my father was from the_ amino _clan but my mother wasn’t, her family worked the farmland around Astra with other families – most having escaped Astra and its strict rules. Homeless, gifted, clanned, the titles meant nothing to us because we were all one.” She smiles softly as she remembers playing in the wheat fields with other children._

_“I remember hearing about that,” Jongin rubs his large hand over his face, recalling his father talking about a rouge clan that had been dealt with. “It was on the news one day when I was a kid; my father told me that the people who died were bad people because they followed their own rules._

_Alice scoffs, “we didn’t follow Astra’s rules” Jongin can sense the painful memory sitting behind her bright blue eyes as she looks at her leg. “I remember the fires breaking out around the village where we all lived, blocking us in before men in armoured suits walked through the flames and opened fire.” The screams echo in her mind, causing her to clench her fists and Jongin feels the bed move slightly. “I was told to hide, my mother dragging me from the house before a soldier shot her in the back,” Alice closes her eyes, refusing to let the memory crush her, “she kept telling me to run ‘_ run Alice, go hide until it’s safe _’ even when she couldn’t move, the life draining from her body – she was telling me to save myself.” Her voice cracks, Jongin quickly moves to her side, kneeling beside her as she ignores his presence and focuses on the past._

_He watches as objects around his room shake, her gift getting out of control as she remembers the death of her family – a feeling Jongin knows all too well. “Alice,” Jongin places his hand on hers, unsure whether it’ll comfort her or not, “you don’t need to tell me anything else, I get it now.”_

_Alice ignores him, breathing deeply as she tries to focus herself. “I was hit on the back of the head before I could run and the next thing I knew I was in a medical centre, the last of my house.” Jongin’s hand clutches hers tight and she can hear the sympathy in his thoughts – the first time he hasn’t aggravated her or found a way to annoy her but instead, he’s almost being caring._

_That’s when they both feel the shift._

“So you told him?” Yixing sounds both shocked and impressed because outside of him and Kyungsoo, no-one knows what happened with her family; Alice doesn’t even know the full story though he knows she has her suspicions.

“I told him most of it, even my relationship with you so that he would stop making gross little remarks about our  _married_  behaviour.” She is glad that Jongin has stopped with those remarks but it hasn’t stopped him from picturing her in ways she wishes he wouldn’t. Yixing chuckles as he observes her, noticing the subtle changes in her body language towards Jongin and his change in outward attitude towards Alice. “Fuck off,” she elbows him, causing his eyes to widen in surprise, “that is never going to happen, we have moved from complete hatred to mutual understanding; nothing more.”

“For you, maybe,” Yixing ponders aloud, scratching his chin as he watches Jongin push his body further than it should be able to, he can sense the muscles screaming in his thighs as exhaustion begins to take over. “Has our overly sexual patient accepted any of the aides Dr Junmyeon has offered?” Alice shakes her head; remembering how terrible that conversation went the other day.

_“Jongin, a man your age is very fertile and you’re in peak health, you need a release.” Alice stands against the wall, watching as Jongin scoffs at the doctor’s suggestion of sleeping with one of the many aides the Asylum has._

_“I don’t need them; keep your whores for yourself.” He spits bitterly, he looks briefly in Alice’s direction before turning his attention back to Junmyeon; an image of Alice bending over to pick up her pen and flashing Jongin with black silk panties worms its way into her mind and Alice’s eyes narrow as she gives him a silent warning – keep his disgusting thoughts to himself._

_Not that he ever listens._

_Junmyeon scowls, lips pulled tight as he places his clipboard on the table, standing up to full height – which is still shorter than Jongin – and walking over to Alice. She can hear the determination in his thoughts, intent clear on getting him to change his mind because rules are in place for a reason. “She is not trained to be an aide, Alice is your nurse.” He stands in front of her, gripping her wrist and pulling her from her spot to stand in front of Jongin. “She’s not ideal for an aide,” he demonstrates his point by standing behind her and gripping her chin; warning her to comply as it’s the only way he feels will deter Jongin from his foolish fantasy. “You touch Alice and she scowls, she doesn’t like being touched, do you Alice?”_

_“No,” she grits out. Jongin’s eyes darken as Junmyeon continues to manhandle her, showing him that nurses aren’t trained to respond the same way as aides are and when the corruption begins to cloud his senses, Alice quickly pulls away from Junmyeon to place a hand on Jongin’s shoulder – pulling him back. “I think he understands, Doctor.”_

“I understand that if he touches you again, I’ll rip his hands off.” _Alice shudders slightly before bowing and ending the session; Junmyeon watches them leave, walking closer than the last time he saw them and his thoughts are swimming with suspicion._

“You cannot let him take an aide, Alice.” Yixing looks down at her, the seriousness in his face is a look she’s only seen a handful of times. “I know that Junmyeon and Minseok state that it’s a rule but-” he pauses, collecting his thoughts so he can word it in a way that will keep her safe, “if it ever comes down to it, you do the job yourself, okay?” Alice is about to question why, question why he’s so worried about such a seemingly meaningless thing but Yixing shakes his head, thoughts begging her to trust him right now. “You are his nurse, you are the closest person he will ever have; you are to be  _whoever_  he needs you to be.” The door opens and Sehun walks in with Baekhyun, causing Yixing to cut their conversation short. “I best be off,” he gives her shoulder a squeeze before making a fast exit and Alice is left with too many questions from a short conversation.

Sehun walks Baekhyun into the room, noticing how Yixing and Alice are talking amongst themselves while Jongin is lifting weights on the bench; Sehun’s mood sours tremendously when he sees the way Alice is looking at Jongin, the resentment she once felt for the disgusting homeless trash now transformed into Alice’s version of admiration. When Yixing looks at them, Sehun can tell that he’s quickly ending his conversation to escape the room and this further fouls Sehun’s mood.

Yixing has always shown favouritism towards Alice, having grown up with her but also it has become more apparent since the higher ups paired her with Jongin; Yixing has been very protective over their fucked up relationship against Junmyeon and Minseok.

Sehun’s overheard him, when his pet needs to be walked, he’s overheard them arguing about how the two have grown close and that Jongin’s interest in the pretty nurse isn’t waning no matter how hard Junmyeon and Minseok warn him that it’s forbidden – the rule only seems to make him want her more.

A forbidden fruit he needs to taste.

Baekhyun gently tugs on Sehun’s sleeve, causing the younger nurse to glare at his patient. “Sehun, I’d prefer to go outside, the sun’s shining and I want you to show me a trick.” Alice looks in his direction, clearly listening to his angry thoughts before giving a quick look at Jongin, still immersed in his workout, and making her way over. “Please Sehun.” Baekhyun pleas but Sehun brushes him off as he meets Alice halfway.

They glare at each other, Alice a head shorter than Sehun while he puffs his chest out and tries to look intimidating. There has been strife between the two of them since Alice and Jongin seemed to connect, she ended up moving to his room to be closer to him because her freak one-way telepathy connection with him has grown so strong that she would startle awake, screaming from his nightmares and the loss of sleep caused her and Sehun to butt heads –even after she left.

Chanyeol tried to get them to talk, straighten it out and get Sehun to understand but for some reason – he couldn’t. Sehun has always been sympathetic towards Alice, knowing she can’t control whose thoughts cross into her head when she’s not concentrating to keep them out and he’s always apologised for the harsh words he says to her because at the end of the day, they are almost family but this time, he can’t.

Jongin’s a monster, a murderer and he’ll snap soon and she’ll be the only one person who can stop him – he’ll kill her to escape and Sehun can’t understand how she can go from hating him to being able to  _care_ about the nightmares he has – the nightmares she also has to suffer because of him.

“How can you be so relaxed hanging around that monster every day, even sleeping in his room?” Sehun growls lowly, keeping his voice low as not to draw Jongin’s attention, even if he’s silently watching from his current position. “Chanyeol heard that you’ve been sleeping on the chair in his room, most of your stuff is gone and in there – you’ve practically moved in, leaving us behind. Do we mean that little to you?” Alice scoffs, looking to the side before setting her cold blue eyes on Sehun, staring intensely into his obsidian orbs.

“You complained every day,  _you_  are the reason I left and you want to make  _me_  look like I turned my back on you?” Alice shakes her head, “fuck off Sehun, grow up and stop acting like a child.” Baekhyun whimpers, hiding behind Sehun as the tension thickens.

Jongin stands up, grabbing a towel and drying his face as he slowly makes his way towards Alice, his thoughts distract her slightly and she looks at him quickly. His muscles ripple, veins bulge as he cracks his knuckles and tilts his head to each side, effectively cracking his neck; his singlet clings to his body and sweats hang loosely on his hips while his thoughts are filled with mischief.

He smirks, raising an eyebrow as he catches her staring.  _“Like something you see, baby? We can head back into my room and I’ll let you see what’s underneath.”_  Alice’s upper lip curls slightly, shaking her head before looking back at Sehun, who is looking thoroughly amused.

“Would you look at that,” Jongin stopping next to Alice, slightly in front of her, “the two most fucked up people in this place are into each other; guess you would need someone to share your bed after killing your family and living on the streets for years like the monster you are.” Sehun laughs darkly before looking at Alice, “and the freak, Yixing’s favourite little bitch and now the play thing for a killer; what a fucken joke.”

It happens so fast that not even Alice can stop him.

Alice can sense the corruption seep into his mind, clouding his thoughts and before she can step in to stop him, Jongin steps forward with a low, guttural sound. His eyes go completely black and Alice watches in fear as the corruption seeps into his blood, his veins turning black; it’s been a good few weeks without a full episode, he’s been in control of his anger and the odd time that he may slip, Alice has always been able to pull him back quickly.

She fears this time, she cannot.

“Where the fuck do you get off?” Sehun and Jongin are nose to nose; despite his ferocious look, Sehun stubbornly refuses to back away. “Playing the damn victim like you haven’t been a total shit to her?” Jongin shoves Sehun, causing him to stumble a little and knocking Baekhyun over. His whimpers cause Sehun to look away momentarily and that’s when Jongin chuckles – darkly. “Oh, look; your pet is crying, what are you going to do, Sehun?” Another shove, “huh?”

Sehun reacts, harshly pushing Jongin away so he can turn and make sure Baekhyun is okay. He’s cowering, his breathing is heavy and he’s mumbling about how scared he is; Sehun tries to help him up, wanting to remove him from the room to keep him safe but Jongin has another plan.

Alice grabs Jongin’s wrist, eyes pleading as she tries not to further anger him by controlling him, “Jongin,” he doesn’t take his eyes off Sehun, an evil smirk twitching at his plump lips as his mind runs wild with the possibilities of killing him, “Jongin, you need to calm down.” He looks at her, his damp, brown fringe falling into his black eyes as he scowls at her.

Ripping his wrist from her grip, he stalks towards Sehun and pushes Baekhyun away from him, causing the smaller man to sprawl on the ground and sprain his wrist. Alice runs to his side, while Sehun prepares to swing but Jongin is faster – and stronger. His hand wraps easily around Sehun’s throat, fingers digging into his oesophagus with the potential and intent to crush it; Sehun chokes, hands trying to pry the offending appendage from his throat, trying to get some oxygen to his brain. Jongin walks him backwards, looking truly psychotic with his blacked-out eyes, sadistic grin and messy hair falling into his eyes; Alice’s voice echoes through the room, calling Jongin’s name as he slams Sehun’s head against the concrete wall while a demented laugh rumbles through his strong chest.

“What’s the matter, cat got your tongue?” His voice is deeper, harsher than usual and Alice knows she has to do it, even if it sets them back to square one.

Sehun’s vision becomes spotty, black spots starting to erase things from his sight; Alice encourages Baekhyun to run and go get Yixing while she stands up straight and reaches into her breast pocket. The fingers slowly loosen, oxygen rushing to Sehun’s brain as he begins to take deep, painful breaths and Jongin looks confused before he’s frozen completely, his eyes the only thing able to move as he tries to find Alice.

She replaces Sehun’s position, the younger male collapsing to the ground, clutching his throat; she can hear Jongin trying to struggle, screaming at her for stopping him but her face is sad, sorrowful as she lifts a syringe to his eyes.  _No._  “I’m sorry, Jongin.” He tries to stop his arm from turning but she’s in control, Alice controls every piece of him and he can’t change it.  _Let me go_. The needle enters the vein in his arm, the strange blue liquid being released into his bloodstream. “This will help you sleep,” she looks like she regrets this, incapacitating him completely, “I can escort you back to your room but I can’t knock you out – safely.” Her voice sounds distorted as Jongin’s body begins to tingle from the effects of the drug; sighing, Alice watches as his mind goes quiet and his limbs become heavy. “This is the only way.”

 _Alice_.

_She draws on the blank paper clipped to her clipboard while Jongin showers and within a few minutes of him entering the bathroom, she groans loudly, throwing the pencil at the bathroom door while his obnoxious laugh comes through the wall as he allows her to vividly see what he’s doing, what he’s imagining. Jongin strokes his cock, leaning back against the wall as he lets out a low moan; Alice tries to concentrate, focusing on anything but the sick fantasy Jongin is playing out in his mind._

_His Alice walks into the bathroom, wearing nothing but lace crimson lingerie and a sexy smirk that he knows she can give; he adjusts his body, the hot stream cascading down his taut muscles and ripped abdomen as he quickens his pace, his thoughts of how sweet she’d taste on his tongue as his imagination Alice goes down on him, this makes real Alice slam her clipboard onto the table beside her._

_“Kim fucken Jongin,” her leg has barely fully healed and still gives her a slight limp as she storms her way across the room, banging against the door, “cut your shit out, or keep it to yourself.” She shakes her head as the image of her taking his hard length into her mouth becomes scarily vivid. She’s almost as strong in a connection with Jongin as she is with Yixing – the closer she is, the more vivid the thoughts._

_Jongin sucks air between his teeth as he curls his toes against the wet floor, slamming his head back against the wall and squeezing his eyes shut as he imagines how well she would take him – deeper and deeper until he hits the back of her throat, “fuck,” he lets out a long groan, ejaculating onto the ground, only for it to be washed away. He smirks, knowing she’ll be pissed when he leaves the bathroom but knowing he had fun doing it – if only she didn’t brush him off so much, he wouldn’t be wasting himself in the bathroom._

_But then she would see the scars._

_A flash of fear crosses his mind before he brushes the thought away, running his hair under the water and giving himself a final clean before turning the shower off and making his exit._

_Alice is waiting, tapping her foot impatiently while Jongin strides into the room with a towel wrapped around his waist and drying his hair with another. “The shower is free,” she scoffs, lifting a hand and tossing his pillow at him, which he doesn’t try to dodge because she’ll just make sure it hits him anyway. “Did you enjoy that?” He chuckles, picking the pillow up and throwing it back onto the bed. Her look of annoyance implies that she did_ not _enjoy having to watch his sick fantasy. “Have you ever been touched, or is that stick so far up your pretty round ass that you are still a virgin at your age?”_

_“I probably have more experience than you, sicko.” Jongin raises an eyebrow, intrigued as he tousles his hair and carefully turns to the side as Alice continues her little rant, defending herself. “I had an actual functioning relationship – unlike you.” Jongin laughs and she stamps her foot, nearly slamming the drawer with his hand inside – causing Jongin to glare at her and Alice only responds with a shrug._

_“If you were with someone, why’d you let him go? He’s probably the only man crazy enough to attempt you – outside of me, that is.” Jongin jests as he pulls a black printed tee over his head; Alice looks away, remembering the face of the man she loved once upon a time. “What? Can’t find the reason why he-”_

_“He died,” her voice is a whisper, barely audible but Jongin catches the words and he curses himself for pushing her. Alice has been forthcoming about her past, sharing small pieces of information about herself when she feels comfortable and Jongin sometimes tells her about his family and the way he lived before the accident._

_Jongin shows the slightest hint of remorse, the most he is currently capable of, eyes downcast as he mumbles his apologies. “How did he die?”_

_Alice doesn’t answer at first, surprised by how quickly his thought patterns changed. Moments ago, Jongin was thinking about her sucking his dick, teasing her about her supposed lack of sexual experience and now – he’s regretting ever saying anything that led to this conversation. When she finally speaks, its words he never thought he would hear from her._

_“I killed him.”_

The monitor beeps periodically as Jongin’s heartbeat keeps at a steady pace, his chest slowly rising and falling as he remains under the effects of the drug that Alice injected into his veins. His mind flows with no solid thoughts as he sleeps dreamlessly and unaware of his current location.

“How long will he remain here in observation?” Yixing looks at the computer monitor, the top half displaying a video feed from the medical room that Jongin is confined to and the bottom half is displaying his vitals. “Do you know if he’ll be discharged or if he’s progressed too far?” Kyungsoo taps his chin, his other hand holding Jongin’s medical and psychiatric notes from the past month.

He closes it, throwing the folder onto the desk in front of him with a small smile on his heart-shaped lips. “He’s remained fairly calm for someone with his demeanour. There have been no corruption episodes since the incident in the hallway and with his vitals back to normal; I think he would be safe enough to place back into his nurse’s care.” They both look at the young blonde sitting next to Jongin’s bed, reading a book. “They seem to have developed better than we expected.” Yixing hums in agreement, thinking how a short while ago, Alice was very vocal about her disdain for Jongin but her she is, refusing to leave his bedside.

“I think, if everything goes to plan, it will be a success – as long as he doesn’t progress faster than anticipated, but I feel we do have a problem we need to address.” Kyungsoo looks at his colleague with a confused hum; Yixing points his chin at the two newcomers in the room – Junmyeon and Minseok. “They are against it.”

Junmyeon and Minseok greet their two colleagues with a bow before looking at the monitor and shaking their heads. Shoving his hands into his pants pockets, Minseok sighs; he’s been trying to figure out how to approach the subject about his suspicions and how separating the pair would be for the best. On the way here, he heard about how Jongin has been refusing every aide offered to him – this fact only strengthens his concern. “What is it, Minseok?” Kyungsoo asks shortly, he’s never been one for the beating around the bush and dislikes when people try to be careful about their words rather than saying what they truly mean.

Giving a quick glance at Junmyeon, Minseok voices his concerns. “I feel that something is happening between Nurse Alice and her patient,” Junmyeon nods, a short hum in agreement, “he’s grown fiercely protective of his nurse and we’ve learnt that no-one is safe from this – what if she allowed-”

“Alice would never allow such a thing,” Yixing interjects, clenching his teeth in anger at such a thing to be brought up. “What happened back then, that was an accident; a terrible, horrific accident but that doesn’t mean she would allow her patient to kill someone.” Minseok isn’t convinced, he looks at Junmyeon for help but the doctor offers no advice and he hisses in annoyance.

“They are growing too close, pairing her with a male patient – a male patient with the sexual restraint of a young teen – was a mistake; Director Kyungsoo, you must see the problem with this? A relationship is either happening or bound to happen and that is against the rules.” Kyungsoo gives a chilling smile, one that causes even Yixing to grow uneasy.

“We have the perfect candidates, Alice has proven that it can be done and Mr Kim Jongin is nearly ready, according to his bloodwork; isn’t that right, Yixing?” Yixing nods and a pleased Kyungsoo looks back at his two psychiatrists, “we need them to grow fond of each other, love or sexual desire for one another, I don’t care which it is but when Jongin is ready – the real fun begins.” A maniacal laugh escapes his throat and he throws his head back as it takes over his body; he becomes the true image of a mad scientist.

A mad scientist playing God with the rules handed down from his equally mad ancestors.

Alice knows exactly when Jongin’s consciousness begins to awaken from the deep hold the drugs had on him; there’s a stinging on her back as she winces in pain, she can hear Jongin call out as the sound of a whip cracks and the sting hits her again – except it’s not her bent over on the concrete floor, arms chained to the ground and back bare and bleeding.

It’s Jongin.

With every crack, his back rips open and his screams of innocence jerks her awake; they were moved back into his room a few hours ago when Director Kyungsoo and Yixing deemed him safe enough to be placed back with her, she had fallen asleep shortly afterwards. He had been in observation for two days and Alice barely slept a wink, worried that they would dismiss her and take him to the fourth floor containment area but that never happened and so she allowed herself a few hours of sleep – until Jongin began to have a nightmare.

Stretching her stiff limbs, Alice moves carefully towards to his side; her lips pull down in a frown as she watches him writhe from the nightmare, sweat beginning to dampen his messy, brown fringe and Alice sits down beside him. “Jongin,” she yawns, noticing the black night sky outside the window beside his bed, “Jongin, you need to wake up.” He whimpers softly and her heart breaks as she sees the blood trickling down his back from the deep gashes, staining his beautiful, caramel skin with the crimson of his own blood.

She has learnt how to deal with his nightmares, the best ways to wake him or the best way to help his mind settle so he can continue with a peaceful sleep and normally, Alice is reluctant to try the go-to when Jongin won’t wake up – caught too deep in his own head. She sighs, lying on the bed beside him and moving his body closer; he couldn’t move away even if he tried because she keeps him in place, keeping her breathing even as his head rests above her heart. Strangely, her heartbeat can help him relax in his sleep, Yixing reckons it’s similar to a child – hearing their mother’s heartbeat is a comfort and Alice always snorts because Jongin views her as a plaything, not a mother.

The nightmare settles down, her hold on Jongin lessens as he doesn’t try to resist her and his breathing slows down as the nightmare dissipates into a blank space. Alice yawns again, oddly comfortable in her current position with an overly warm Jongin closely pressed against her side and she finds no will to move. “Just a little while,” she reasons, “I’ll be up before him so I can move back to the chair then and no-one will ever know.” She nods, pleased with her sleepy decision as she closes her eyes and allows sleep to once again take her.

While a heavy arm wraps around her waist and pulls her closer to his warm body.


End file.
